Cruise, a company specializing in autonomous taxis, has begun testing its self-driving cars on the streets of Houston again, following a report by TechCrunch on Tuesday. General Motors, the main investor in Cruise, announced the same day that it is committing an additional $850 million to the project.
These updates come after Cruise decided to cautiously return to public road testing after a series of troubling incidents last year. The most severe incident involved a female pedestrian who was dragged by a driverless Cruise car in San Francisco in October, after being struck by another vehicle and thrown into the path of the Cruise car. Although the woman survived, the incident led California to suspend Cruise’s operating permit, prompting the company to halt testing nationwide shortly afterward.
Since then, Cruise has resumed operations with very small fleets in Phoenix and Dallas. The plan for Houston is equally cautious, introducing just three vehicles fitted with autonomous systems, but these systems will not be active initially. According to Axios, this step aims to observe how human drivers react to the presence of Cruise cars and to help them get accustomed to seeing these vehicles on the streets again.
When the time is right, Cruise will move to “supervised autonomous driving.” In this phase, the self-driving systems will be functional but a human driver will be present to take control if necessary.
Cruise had initially started testing its autonomous vehicles in Houston last fall, but halted these efforts after a few weeks due to the nationwide pause.
Founded in 2013, Cruise has raised over $15 billion in funding, with more than half coming from General Motors since it acquired the company in 2016. Despite last year’s setbacks, there were discussions about the future of Cruise’s efforts in autonomous vehicles. However, with strong support from GM, Cruise committed to continuing its work with a new approach described by a company spokesperson as “slow and steady.”