Cruise, a self-driving technology company majority-owned by General Motors, plans to rapidly scale up its robotaxi service in 2023, Gil West, Cruise's chief operating officer, told Reuters in an interview published on Wednesday.
Cruise's service is already available in San Francisco in limited form, and the company has previously announced an expansion to Austin and Phoenix to be completed this year.
West said Cruise plans to expand the service to more U.S. cities in 2023 and add “thousands of vehicles” to the fleet.
Separately, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company aims to earn $1 billion in revenue by 2025, though that's still about half what GM annually invests in the company.
Cruise's fleet is currently made up of Chevrolet Bolt EVs fitted with Cruise's own self-driving system, though Cruise plans to eventually add a dedicated vehicle known as the Origin. West told Reuters the 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.
Self-driving technology companies are under more scrutiny from investors following the demise of Ford and Volkswagen Group-backed Argo AI in October. Rivals have made some major announcements as a result. Alphabet's Waymo announced in October plans to expand to Los Angeles, and in November the company revealed a dedicated vehicle for its robotaxi service. VW Group in October said its own robotaxi service remains on track for launch in 2025, despite the demise of Argo AI, which was developing the service. Meanwhile, Baidu this week said it aims to have the world's largest robotaxi service by the end of 2023.
