California may soon see a lot more driverless robotaxis on the road from GM’s Cruise
GM’s self-driving rideshare unit, Cruise, has applied for permission to expand testing of its robotaxi rides throughout all of California. The autonomous driving specialist has already been testing rides for over a year in different cities across three states including San Francisco, but hopes to expand further throughout The Golden State.
Cruise is a startup founded in 2013 before being was purchased by GM in 2016. The startup immediately began converting the automaker’s Chevy Bolt EV to be fully-autonomous backed by $14 million in GM funding.
During its decade-long tenure, Cruise has made tremendous progress in its home state of California, more specifically the bay area. Like any startup, especially one trying to operate EVs without a human present in the driver’s seat, Cruise has seen its fair share of growing pains but has continued forward in achieving truly driverless rides.
Services that began in San Francisco have since expanded to Phoenix, Arizona and most recently, Austin, Texas. In February, Cruise president, CEO, and cofounder Kyle Vogt shared that the company had surpassed one million miles driven without anyone behind the wheel, joining robotaxi competitor Waymo in the 1M club.
While there is still a lot of red tape that will need to be cut through with the DMV, Cruise now looks to expand its robotaxi testing throughout all of California… we just don’t know what cities it intends to test in next yet.
Cruise has applied for robotaxi testing throughout California
Per Market Watch, Cruise has applied for a permit with the California DMV to (eventually) expand its driverless testing throughout the state. While expansion is clearly the plan for Cruise and California has emerged as the first state to allow its driverless rides, the startup is not sharing much else at this point. Per Cruise spokesperson Drew Pusateri:
While this application doesn’t represent any immediate change to our testing or operations, we hope to continue working with the California DMV to safely and responsibly test our services in other cities in the future. This is the first step in that process.
Pusateri went on to say that although Cruise hopes to expand its robotaxi operations throughout all of California, it does not have any specific cities in mind to launch services in next. If and when the California DMV accepts Cruise’s application, the company said its rides will initially be limited to employees only and additional licenses will be needed to expand to customers, whether they are paying or not.
Last week, Cruise began offering free rides to service and hospitality workers during their late-night shifts in San Francisco as part of a pilot project with the non-profit, SF New Deal. Cruise could eventually expand free pilot programs like this to other parts of California to continue gathering test data in new environments on its way to a full robotaxi hailing business in the US.
Like many things EV, it looks like California will be the breeding ground for expanded robotaxi operations as we look to learn more about Cruise’s plans for expansion throughout the state.
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Hyundai is about to launch a new electric SUV in China. With its big debut coming up, Hyundai just dropped a sneak peek, and it looks like it could be the IONIQ 4. Check it out for yourself in the video below.
Is Hyundai teasing the IONIQ 4?
We caught our first glimpse of the new EV model last month after Beijing Hyundai released a few official “spy” photos.
Despite the camouflage, you can see a few design elements, like a light bar across the front, slim LED headlights, and a closed-off grille. At first, it almost looks like a smaller version of the IONIQ 9, Hyundai’s first three-row electric SUV, but with a much sportier, shaped profile.
Beijing Hyundai released a new teaser for the upcoming electric SUV this week. The video shows “a wave of high-end operations” as the vehicle dances across the snow.
The video highlights features like real-time torque control, high-speed cornering, and the SUV’s impressive body control while driving around cones.
Hyundai’s new electric SUV is being called “OE” internally, according to The Korean Car Blog, suggesting it could be an IONIQ model.
All other Hyundai IONIQ EV models were also codenamed with an “E” internally, which is raising speculation that this could be the IONIQ 4.
Like most global OEMs, Hyundai is fighting to compete in an intense Chinese EV market, which is dominated by domestic automakers like BYD.
Hyundai opened its first overseas R&D center last year in China to spearhead its comeback. It will work with local suppliers and tech companies to develop EVs designed for Chinese buyers. The new electric SUV is expected to launch in China later this year, followed by three new energy vehicles, including EVs and EREVs.
Beijing Hyundai will release more information on April 16, with the electric SUV set to “challenge the limit of driving performance.”
What do you think of Hyundai’s new electric SUV? Is this the IONIQ 4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Charge point provider char.gy has secured a £130 million contract to install 6,000 curbside EV chargers for Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) – the UK’s largest installation of its kind.
London-based char.gy has also been awarded a 15-year contract to operate and maintain the charging network.
Installing Level 2 chargers curbside, where most drivers in the UK park, will enable more people to take advantage of cheaper charging rates while juicing up their EVs overnight. (charg.gy’s pay as you go night tariff, between midnight and 7 am, is £0.39/kWh, compared to its £0.59/kWh day tariff.)
John Lewis, chief executive of char.gy, said the project is “a huge moment for the UK and its EV ambitions. This partnership alone will empower thousands of residents to confidently make the switch to electric vehicles, knowing they have easy access to chargers.”
Brighton and Hove City Council is among the first to tap into the government’s Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, designed to help English local authorities roll out charging solutions for residents without off-street parking. Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood said making EV charging as accessible as possible is “crucial to making the switch to electric a success.”
The UK now has over 75,000 public EV chargers, according to the Department for Transport—and it looks like the country’s on pace to hit its 2030 target. Back in December, the National Audit Office said the rollout is “on track” to meet the DfT’s estimate that at least 300,000 chargers will be needed by the end of the decade.
Read more: Meet the UK’s largest solar + storage EV charging ‘Superhub’
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