Uber and Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, will collaborate to provide autonomous ride services.

• Uber and General Motors' Cruise have formed a multi-year partnership, with Uber planning to provide driverless rides to its users as early as next year.
• After halting its robotaxi operations following an October 2023 incident, Cruise is now making an announcement in an attempt to revive its business.

Uber has agreed to a multi-year partnership with Cruise, which plans to provide driverless rides to Uber users as early as next year.

Cruise is trying to restart its robotaxi business after stopping operations following an October 2023 incident in San Francisco where a pedestrian was dragged 20 feet by a driverless Cruise vehicle after being first hit by a human driver in another car.

An exodus of Cruise leaders, including CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt, occurred following an investigation by state and federal regulators into the incident that led to significant layoffs.

Marc Whitten, CEO of Cruise, and Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, both praised the partnership in a press release, emphasizing that they believe autonomous vehicles can be used safely.

"Whitten stated in the release that Cruise is committed to utilizing driverless technology to enhance road safety and transform urban living. "We are thrilled to collaborate with Uber to provide the advantages of safe, dependable, autonomous driving to an even greater number of individuals, paving the way for a new era of urban transportation.""

Uber is excited to collaborate with Cruise and anticipates launching the partnership next year, according to Khosrowshahi's statement in the release.

Uber and Cruise have not disclosed any information about their partnership or the plans for Cruise's relaunch.

In 2016, Uber partnered with Volvo to develop its own autonomous vehicle technology. However, after a 2018 incident in which an Uber self-driving car struck and killed a woman named Elaine Herzberg, Uber abandoned the effort. The Uber safety driver on board at the time, Rafaela Vasquez, was ultimately held legally liable for the incident.

Uber has partnered with Waymo to offer driverless rides or food delivery to Uber users via robotaxis in Arizona.

During Uber's recent earnings call, analysts queried the company about the potential long-term effects of the emergence of robotaxis on its business.

According to Khosrowshahi, Uber's AV players experience higher utilization compared to when they operate without a network on a first-party basis. He also predicted that there will be a prolonged hybrid period as autonomous vehicles are developed and regulators attempt to determine how to regulate them. Khosrowshahi stated that this market will not be a winner-take-all scenario.

Waymo, a rival to Cruise, announced this week that it is currently providing 100,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in cities where it operates commercially in the US, including San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Additionally, the company is testing its service in Austin, Texas and plans to expand.

GM has previously partnered with a ride-hailing company, investing $500 million in Lyft in early 2016 with the intention of developing an autonomous vehicle fleet that could be summoned through Lyft's mobile app. However, this plan did not come to fruition, and GM instead launched its own vehicles and network through Cruise.

Despite the Thursday announcement, a Cruise spokeswoman stated that the company is still focused on launching its own autonomous ride-hailing service and app.

Currently, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston are locations where Cruise is carrying out supervised testing of autonomous vehicles with a safety driver.