--- title: "GM’s Robotaxis Are Now Collecting Fares with No Safety Driver" description: "General Motors just started charging for rides in its new fleet of driverless Cruise model robotaxis in San Francisco last week." date: "2022-06-29" modified: "2022-06-29" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/gm-robotaxis-fares" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "general motors" - "self driving" - "self driving car" - "the digest" --- # GM’s Robotaxis Are Now Collecting Fares with No Safety Driver ![GM debuts its fleet of driverless Cruise model robotaxis in San Francisco, open to the public and charging fares. Now it wants to expand to other cities.]() *\Image: General Motors\* ## Ticket to Ride General Motors just started charging for rides in its new fleet of driverless Cruise model robotaxis in San Francisco last week, and next it plans to expand to other cities. It’s a historic moment, and likely a glimpse of things to come. There aren't a lot of companies with fully driverless vehicles on public streets, and even fewer are charging for rides. It was only [back in March]() that federal regulators opened the way for fully driverless vehicles — which, to clarify, now don’t even need to come equipped with manual controls like a steering wheel. "It’s a Wright Brothers moment," said Cruise Chief Operating Officer Gil West in an [interview with Bloomberg](). "If you fast forward to next year and beyond, it’s rapid scaling of business." ## Safety Check Initially proposed in 2020, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officially enacted the ruling just a month after GM requested permission to deploy its driverless Cruise model on public streets. Now its robotaxis prowl the San Francisco streets, open to paying customers. Many [have raised concerns]() over the safety of deploying driverless cars onto public roads. In 2018, a self-driving car with a human safety driver [struck and killed]() a pedestrian, an incident which was primarily blamed on the inattentive safety driver and catalyzed scrutiny of autonomous vehicles. The premise of self driving cars has long been that they'll make driving safer, but the [data remains unclear](), and a grisly accident during a trial like GM's could cast a long shadow for public perception of the tech. And of course, the question of employment can’t be overlooked. If autonomous vehicles *do* become ubiquitous, they could easily stamp out countless jobs in taxis, trucking, and beyond, with grim implications for the economy. As it stands, all eyes are on San Francisco. What happens there with driverless cars may be the future for many American cities. **More on autonomous vehicles:** [*BMW Posts, Deletes Ad About Sex Inside Self-Driving Cars*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()