Only weeks after the robotaxi company was primed for aggressive expansion, it’s taking all of its cars off the street. Plus: what the heck is RAG?
The robotaxi rollout in San Francisco continues to be rocky. In short: things have not been going well for what Silicon Valley hoped would be its next trillion dollar industry. Though a decision in August by California’s Public Utilities Commission approved expanded operations for two major “robotaxi” companies—Google’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise—in the Bay Area, there’s been more than a little trouble turning that regulatory thumb’s up into a business success.
From the start, Cruise has had a tough go of it. In the first week after the CPUC made its ruling, a Cruise robotaxi slammed into a city fire truck, injuring the robotaxi’s driver. Then, another one stopped at an intersection, clogging up traffic and enraging locals. Then, about a week ago, a woman was run over and dragged by a Cruise robotaxi during a traffic incident. As a result, California has ordered Cruise to pull all of its vehicles off the city’s streets.
But Cruise didn’t just shut down its operations in the Bay Area. On Friday, the company announced that it would be ceasing operations across the country.
