Cruise, the autonomous driving subsidiary of General Motors, has signed a multi-year partnership with ride-hailing giant Uber to bring its robotaxis to the ride-hailing platform in 2025.
Cruise did not disclose when exactly customers would see the company’s vehicles on the Uber platform, but a spokesperson told TechCrunch that this partnership will follow the relaunch of Cruise’s driverless service.
The announcement is another indication that Cruise is preparing to reintroduce its robotaxis to public streets after one struck a pedestrian last October. (A human-driven vehicle struck the pedestrian first, sending her flying into the path of the robotaxis.) The announcement also follows recent comments from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi positioning the ride-sharing company as an ideal market partner for companies looking to commercialize autonomous vehicles.
Uber has already partnered with Waymo in the ride-sharing space. Waymo vehicles have been available in the Uber app in Phoenix since October 2023.
Before the Cruise safety incident – which resulted in the company losing its autonomous driving permits in California and the shutdown of its U.S. fleet – the company had been expanding into new territories at a rapid pace. Cruise was charging for autonomous rides in San Francisco, Austin, Houston and Phoenix and was launching autonomous vehicle tests in Miami.
Cruise began manual testing of its robotaxis again in Phoenix in April 2024 and has since expanded those tests to Dallas and Houston.
The company is also playing nice with regulators as it works toward a restart. Today, Cruise announced it has recalled its fleet of 1,194 AVs to end a federal safety investigation into an unexpected braking issue. In June, Cruise agreed to pay California regulators a $112,500 fine for miscommunication related to last fall’s incident. The settlement allowed Cruise to resume operations in the state.
The partnership between Cruise and Uber follows comments from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi earlier this month in which he touted the company as an ideal partner for autonomous vehicle makers looking to commercialize it.
“Uber is uniquely positioned to provide tremendous value to AV companies looking to deploy their technology at scale,” Khosrowshahi said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Aug. 6. “While operating a ride-hail network may seem simple, our technology hides tremendous complexity.”
Khosrowshahi further pointed out that while autonomous vehicles are an expensive commodity, Uber can increase their use.
“Uber can meet tremendous demand without AV companies having to invest capital in customer acquisition or building marketplace technology that provides the reliability consumers have come to expect,” Khosrowshahi said.
For its grocery delivery service, Uber has active partnerships with autonomous vehicle startup Nuro and delivery robot companies Serve Robotics and Cartken. Uber also has partnerships with autonomous trucking companies Waabi and Aurora Innovation, although neither of them operates fully autonomously (without a human driver at the wheel) yet.
Uber is likely to announce more potential deals in the coming weeks and months. The company recently signed a deal with Chinese electric car startup BYD to bring 100,000 new electric cars to the platform in markets outside the U.S. The two companies say they will collaborate on “future BYD autonomous vehicles” to be used on the Uber platform. BYD committed to a $14 billion investment in AV technology in June.
