Cruise will send some of its trouble-prone robot taxis to join Uber's ride-hailing service

Cruise's troubled robotaxis will begin working with ride-sharing service Uber next year as part of a multi-year partnership between the two companies that once competed for passengers.

The alliance is the latest change of course for Cruise since the publication of the California license to provide driverless rides. suspended in October 2023 after one of its robot taxis dragged a pedestrian who had run a red light and been hit by a human-driven car traveling along a dark street in San Francisco.

The incident drove regulatory investigations in Cruise and prompted its parent company, automaker General Motors, to scale back its once-bold ambitions in the field of autonomous driving.

GM had envisioned Cruise generating $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025, while the robotaxis gradually expand beyond San Francisco to other cities to provide a driverless alternative to ride-sharing services from Uber and Lyft.

But now GM and Cruise want to make money by combining the robotaxis with Uber's human-driven vehicles and giving passengers the ability to request an autonomous ride when they need it. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed, nor were the cities where Uber plans to offer Cruise's robotaxis next year.

Unless something changes, California will not be included in the selection because Cruise's license remains suspended in that state.

Meanwhile, a robotaxi fleet operated by Google spin-off Waymo is expanding beyond San Francisco into cities in the Bay Area and Southern California. Earlier this week, Waymo announced that its robotaxis are completing more than 100,000 paid rides per week – a figure that includes operations in Phoenix, where the company has operated for several years.

Cruise currently operates autonomous Chevy Bolts in Phoenix and Dallas, with humans behind the wheel and ready to take over if something goes wrong. The Uber deal underscores Cruise's determination to get back to the point where its robotaxis navigate the streets entirely on their own.

“Cruise is committed to using autonomous driving technology to create safer streets and redefine city life,” said Cruise CEO Marc Whitten, filling a gap created by the death of the Cruise founder. Kyle Vogt has resigned as part of the consequences of driver’s license revocation in California.

GM also laid off hundreds of employees as part of its financial austerity measures amid setbacks in California after the company incurred losses of $5.8 billion from 2021 to 2023 on its robotaxi service. The Detroit-based automaker suffered another operating loss of $900 million on Cruise in the first half of this year, but that was less than the nearly $1.2 billion it incurred at the same time last year.

Despite Cruise's current problems, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed confidence that the ride-sharing service could get the robotaxi business back on track.

“We believe Uber can play an important role in safely and reliably introducing autonomous technology to consumers and cities around the world,” Khosrowshahi said.