You Can Now Ride in a Driverless Car in San Francisco

San Francisco may be the first city to experience the advent of driverless cars. 

Just yesterday, Cruise announced it would extend its driverless car service to the general public. 

Cruise was founded by Kyle Vogt in San Francisco in 2013, and was acquired by General Motors in 2016. Since General Motors released the Cruise fleet in 2017, the cars have covered over 2 million miles within the city, traversing San Francisco’s varied geography using over 40 sensors. 

Up until now, the driverless car service was only experienced by Cruise members, safety drivers, and, more recently, a few members of the public nominated by the Cruise team. 

As of yesterday, you, too, can join their ranks.

If you’re interested in experiencing a driverless ride yourself, you can sign up for the Cruise Rider Community waitlist here. 

“People who are nominated by employees or sign up on the waitlist will be incorporated into the pipeline to be among our first public riders,” a Cruise spokesperson told The Bold Italic. 

“We are the only AV company in California to receive a permit that allows for driverless vehicles to carry members of the public,” the spokesperson went on to say.

Further good news? The company has yet to receive a permit to charge the public for these rides, so the driverless service is currently free. 

If you’re curious about the Cruise experience, you can take a look at Vogt’s first driverless pickup in November of last year. The Cruise founder and CEO reflected on this experience in a blog entry, in which he referred to his driverless car as “Sourdough.” (Apparently, cars within the Cruise fleet have names like “Poppy” and “Tostada”). 

“When Sourdough arrived, with no one inside, and took me for a quiet ride through the streets of SF, it became clear to me that we’ve built something very special,” Vogt recalled. 

“Now it’s time for us to share it.”