Cruise plans to add “thousands of vehicles” to its robotaxi fleet by 2023

Cruise, a self-driving tech company majority-owned by GM, plans to rapidly expand its robotaxi service in 2023, Cruise’s chief operating officer Gil West told Reuters in an interview published Wednesday.

Cruise’s service is already available on a limited basis in San Francisco, and the company previously announced an expansion to Austin and Phoenix, which is expected to be completed later this year.

West said Cruise plans to expand service to more U.S. cities in 2023, adding “thousands of vehicles” to the fleet.

Separately, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company aims to hit $1 billion in sales by 2025, although that’s still about half of what GM invests in the company annually.

Cruise’s fleet currently consists of Chevrolet Bolt EVs equipped with Cruise’s own self-driving system, although Cruise plans to eventually add a special vehicle called Origin. West told Reuters that Origin will help boost Cruise’s bottom line due to lower costs.

Cruise is currently testing Origin prototypes in San Francisco, albeit with human drivers. The vehicle is based on GM’s Ultium EV platform and will also be built by GM.

After the demise of Argo AI, backed by Ford and Volkswagen Group, in October, self-driving technology companies have come under closer scrutiny from investors. We’ve seen competitors make some major announcements as a result. Alphabet’s Waymo announced plans to expand to Los Angeles in October, and in November the company unveiled a special vehicle for its robotaxi service. The VW Group announced in October that its own Robotaxi service remains on track for a 2025 launch, despite the demise of Argo AI, which developed the service. Meanwhile, Baidu said this week it aims to have the world’s largest robotaxi service before it expires in 2023.

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