General Motors’ self-driving division Cruise Automation is partnering with DoorDash to test an autonomous food delivery service in San Francisco. The service will offer meal and grocery deliveries and it’s expected to begin in early 2019. It will initially operate in the San Francisco area, particularly in the section of the city where Cruise has been testing its autonomous vehicles.
The pilot program will have Cruise’s autonomous Chevrolet Bolt vehicles making grocery and restaurant deliveries for DoorDash customers in San Francisco. It hasn’t been confirmed how many vehicles will be part of this pilot program. Cruise has 180 vehicles registered with the DMV in California in addition to more than 400 safety drivers.
“Partnering with DoorDash will provide us with critical learnings as we further our mission to deliver technology that makes people’s lives better and more convenient,” said Cruise CEO Dan Ammann.
Cruise is far from the only company looking at the delivery sector as a potential area of growth for autonomous vehicles. Ford has delivery partnerships with the likes of Domino’s Pizza and Walmart. Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving division, is even testing autonomous trucks.
The service may only be open to select DoorDash customers but there will be more clarity on this front once the service actually goes live. The vague early 2019 timeframe suggests that there may be a couple of months before it launches.
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