‘Buckle up buddy.’ Self-driving rideshare cars hit Charlotte streets for testing

There’s a new robot in town.

Driverless rideshare cars are joining Charlotte’s fleet of robots — previously comprised only of the pink delivery robots roaming around uptown.

Cruise announced it is testing its self-driving, Chevy Bolt-based cars in Charlotte Tuesday. The company offers rides in San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix, according to its page on X, formerly known as Twitter. It’s also rolled out testing in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Atlanta and Nashville.

The test cars will be in Charlotte until Saturday, wrote city spokesperson Lawrence Corley III in an email. The cars will have a driver behind them at all times as the company navigates “getting to know Charlotte’s roads/driving behaviors before going driverless.”

Many call the vehicles “robotaxis.” The service is similar to Lyft and Uber in that customers are picked up and pay per trip.

With investments from Microsoft, GM, Honda and Walmart, Cruise is valued over $30 billion, according to its website.

The company, founded in 2013, hit 4 million driverless miles Thursday, according to CEO Kyle Vogt’s post on X. After GM acquired Cruise in 2016, its fleet hit the streets as a rideshare network in 2017.

Problems with Cruise self-driving cars

The city, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and Charlotte Fire Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new fleet of cars in Charlotte.

On Friday, at least six Cruise cars stalled in the middle of the road near San Francisco’s North Beach area. A Cruise spokesperson told KRON the cars stopped because of “wireless connectivity issues.”

While the California Public Utilities Commission has approved the company’s expansion of 24/7 service throughout the city, the San Francisco Fire Department said the ruling ignores public safety and emergency response interference.

“The San Francisco Fire Department is not against modernization and new technologies,” said Capt. Jonathan Baxter in a statement. “But, any vehicle that endangers the people of the City and its visitors in danger and would put its passengers between a fire engine and a fire is not ready for prime time.”

Since 2018, the cars have been issued tickets for cutting off pedestrians, recalled after hitting buses and involved in crashes with semi-trucks.

But Cruise says when compared to human drivers, its performance resulted in fewer collisions in its first million driverless miles.

They were involved in 54% fewer collisions overall, 92% fewer collisions as the primary contributor and 73% fewer collisions with meaningful risk of injury.

Driverless cars in Charlotte

Cruise wheels have been on Charlotte’s roads for less than 24 hours, and two sides have already emerged under the company’s post on X.

While some are ready for the future and have faith in the company’s grossing value, others shun the idea of driverless cars in the city’s already-congested and confusing streets.

“Buckle up buddy we got: intersections of Queens & Queens, Providence & Providence, AND 3 sidewalks + rail crossing at Tremont & Camden,” one user posted on X. “Plus, many of the most dangerous intersections are in center city. You ain’t ready.”

One Charlotte resident claimed he already saw one Cruise car parked in the middle of the street.