If you get in a taxi in Montrose and don’t see a driver, don’t be alarmed — it might be one of Cruise’s autonomous vehicles, which began taking passengers this week.
Cruise said in social media posts on Oct. 12 that the service is ready to accept riders in a service area between the downtown, River Oaks, East Downtown and Montrose neighborhoods. The company announced a $5 flat fare promotion for Houstonians for a limited time. The so-called ‘robotaxis’ will operate from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Kyle Vogt, CEO of Cruise, tweeted in May 2023 that the San Francisco-based startup would continue its Texas expansion with fleets in Houston and Dallas. A Cruise spokesperson could not share the exact amount of cars in the Bayou City but told Houston Inno that the company had 400 vehicles across its operations in San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin and Houston as of Oct. 13.
The company started offering driverless rides in San Francisco in June 2022 after earning the first-ever Driverless Deployment Permit from the California Public Utilities Commission. Cruise’s fleet of Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles began navigating Austin’s streets in late December.
Backed by General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM), Honda (NYSE: HMC), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Cruise has raised $10 billion in funding to develop and roll out its services, according to its website.
Cruise was founded in 2013, and GM bought a majority stake in 2016. GM has poured more than $3 billion into its Cruise investment after buying out SoftBank’s equity in 2022.
Cruise vehicles with safety drivers have been spotted around the Bayou City for months, but Axios Houston reported in September that the company had begun testing driverless ride-hail service for employees and families of employees. Cruise told Houston Inno that it would continue to hire employees in Houston but did not share how many workers it expects to have at full capacity.
The company’s Houston offices are in Montrose, but Cruise declined to share an address.
Interest in autonomous vehicles in Houston kicked off with Mountain View, California-based Nuro’s partnership with the grocery giant Kroger Co. in 2019. Nuro announced several other driverless delivery pilot programs in Houston with Walmart, CVS Pharmacy, Domino's Pizza, FedEx and Uber Eats in recent years.
Houston's growing population, climate, geography and driverless vehicle-friendly local regulations made the market attractive to Nuro, the company said in 2019. However, Nuro announced this year that it plans to reduce its headcount, move away from making its vehicles and focus on research and development in an effort to cut costs.
Other companies have explored the realm of autonomous trucking, thanks to the proximity of the Port of Houston and access to transit corridors. Most recently, California-based Kodiak Robotics partnered with A.P. Moller – Maersk to deliver shipping loads between Houston and Oklahoma City. Kodiak told Houston Inno that the trucks currently have a safety driver but are expected to go driverless by the end of next year.
Companies such as Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. also have been expanding their Texas infrastructure. Aurora, which partnered with FedEx for the shipping company’s pilot, opened a commercial-ready terminal for autonomous trucks in Dallas in April with eyes on the Houston-DFW corridor.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions, part of Sweden-based Volvo Group, also opened a Dallas-area office this year and announced plans to expand its footprint in the Dallas-Houston trucking routes.
