Struggling automaker Cruise teams up with Uber for comeback

Robotaxi company Cruise’s licenses are currently suspended in California, but it’s definitely planning a comeback, having just announced that it’s partnering to offer autonomous Cruise rides on the Uber app.

Cruise, the once-high-profile self-driving car company, was temporarily forced out of California when the state DMV suspended its license following an incident in which a driverless Cruise vehicle dragged a pedestrian for 20 feet last October. Cruise now operates only in Dallas, Houston and Phoenix, and only with a human on board to oversee operations.

But make no mistake, Cruise is surely planning a comeback. And today, CNBC reports that Cruise is partnering with Uber, apparently to offer rides in Cruise cars that users could order through the Uber app.

A press release from Cruise and Uber describes this as a “multi-year strategic partnership to integrate Cruise autonomous vehicles into the Uber platform.” The release says the rides will begin “next year,” but doesn’t specify in which cities they will be available. But the release does explicitly state that “when an Uber rider requests an eligible ride on the Uber app, they may be offered a ride in a Cruise autonomous vehicle.”

Otherwise, the press release is pretty vague and uninteresting. It contains a quote from Cruise’s new CEO, Marc Whitten, and another quote from Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi. And then it quickly ends with “For more information…”

For those who remember how this self-driving car story has evolved, you’ll recall that Uber has tried to launch self-driving cars before. Those projects also ended ignominiously, when a self-driving Uber struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018.

But there are benefits to both companies. For Uber, it could be a way to lay off all of its human drivers as soon as possible, something they’ve wanted to do for years. For Cruise, it could lead to wider adoption of their product as they try to get back in the game.

But Uber is clearly having it both ways, having already partnered with its self-driving rival Waymo to run Uber Eats deliveries earlier this year. It’s questionable, though, to what extent Waymo would partner with Uber, given that Uber employee Anthony Levandowski once stole Waymo’s trade secrets when he left Waymo.

Related: GM’s Cruise Robots Are Being Quietly Relaunched, But Not in San Francisco, and Again With Human Drivers (SFist)

Image: General Motors’ Cruise self-driving car undergoes testing on the streets of the Mission District in San Francisco, California, on October 6, 2019. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)