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Cruise expands supervised self-driving ride-hailing to Houston and Dallas

Cruise is rolling out its self-driving cars to more cities — specifically, to Houston and Dallas as it expands its Texas-based presence. Cruise already started testing its vehicles in Austin at the end of last year, and announced plans to begin testing its Origin built-for-purpose robotaxis there earlier in 2023 .

Cruise said via their Twitter account that they’ll kick off supervised (meaning, there’s a safety driver in the car) testing in Houston “in the coming days,” and will expand to Dallas shortly after. For now, consumers won’t have access to these vehicles, but that’s the eventual goal. Cruise will shift to driverless testing before opening it up to riders.

Interested individuals can use Cruise’s sign-up page to join the waitlist, as the program will be invite-only initially, though open to the general public in terms of requesting access.

It’s been a busy year for Cruise, with expansion of its testing program to new locales, and also a broadening of its pilot program in San Francisco, where its cars are now available to hail 24 hours a day throughout the city — for employees only initially, however.

Cruise to begin testing Origin robotaxis in Austin in coming weeks

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Despite concerns, driverless car company aims for launch in houston by end of 2023.

Most recently there was concern after self-driving cars caused a backup on Montrose Boulevard Tuesday evening triggered by a malfunctioning traffic light.

Self driving cars are apparently causing a ruckus in parts of Houston after reports this week of autonomous vehicles clogging a busy intersection.

What was once a futuristic pipe dream of car companies across the world, fully autonomous cars have made their way to Houston roadways as Cruise, a General Motors subsidiary that started testing its vehicles in Houston earlier this year, is anticipating a full launch in the city by the end of the year, Elizabeth Conway, Cruise spokeswoman said Wednesday.

About a week after Cruise’s cars caused a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam in Austin, the self-driving cars caused a backup on Montrose Boulevard Tuesday evening triggered by a malfunctioning traffic light, Axios reported.

The incident isn’t entirely uncommon, as reports of the vehicles stalling have caused a stir this year across U.S. cities.

“It is obviously in it’s early days for the service, and because safety is so embedded in what we do, if a driverless car doesn’t know what to do it will pull over,” Conway said.

With a fleet of around 400 vehicles across the country, Cruise is offering ride-hailing services in San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin, and testing its vehicles in 10 other large metropolitans across the country. Some of those vehicles landed in Houston earlier this year, but they were in their first stages of testing, and not fully autonomous until recently.

The driverless testing phase of the vehicles varies from city to city, Conway said. In Austin, the cars went into the fully autonomous testing phase after just 90 days.

The mission of Cruise, which was founded in 2013 and has raised a total of $10 billion in capital commitments from companies such as GM, Honda, Microsoft and Walmart, is to “improve road safety, reduce emissions and reduce congestion,” Tiffany Testo, a Cruise spokesperson told Houston Public Media earlier this year. Its large fleet of vehicles is powered by renewable energy.

Cruise recalled all of its vehicles earlier this year for a software update in late March after one rear-ended a city bus in San Francisco. The crash caused no injuries and the autonomous car was traveling about 10 mph at the time.

Despite that, the vehicles are trained to follow traffic signals and adapt to road rules, Conway said.

“We are really thrilled about where we are right now,” Conway said. “We are doing it with an excellent safety record.”

Once operating in Houston, the price to take a cruise in one of the driverless cars will depend on the market, officials said. In San Francisco, the base price for a ride is $5, and passengers are then charged per mile and per minute while taking an optimal route.

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look ma, no driver

Self-driving rideshare company cruises its robotaxies into houston.

Anew driverless ridehail service is coming to Houston: Cruise , the all-electric, driverless car company backed by GM, is expanding in Texas with launches in both Dallas and the Bayou City.

This follows an initial launch in Austin in 2022, their first city in Texas.

Cruise builds and operates driverless vehicles that you can call via an app, like any other ride hailing service. "But our vehicles show up without anyone else inside," they say.

The entire fleet is all-electric and the vehicles are equipped with a 360-view, with the ability to react to whatever they encounter on the road.

They test their vehicles using simulations, through millions of scenarios and virtual miles; they’ve also driven more than 4 million real miles, mostly in San Francisco.

They have not defined what the cost will be but according to The Verge , the rates in San Francisco vary depending on length of trip and time of day: "A customer taking a 1.3-mile trip would pay 90 cents per mile and 40 cents per minute, in addition to a $5 base fee and 1.5 percent city tax, for a total of $8.72." By comparison, an Uber ride for the same trip would cost at least $10.41.

The company was founded in 2013 and vehicles began to hit the road in 2022. They operate a total fleet of roughly 300 all-electric AVs, powered 100 percent by renewable energy. In addition to Austin, they operate in San Francisco and Phoenix, where they've completed 35,000 self-driving deliveries in a partnership with Walmart.

According to a statement from CEO Kyle Vogt, they'll begin supervised driving (with a safety driver behind the wheel) in Houston as they finetune their AI technology to understand the nuances and unique elements of the city, with Dallas to follow shortly after.

In a blog post, Vogt says their cars drive the speed limit and come to a complete stop at every stop sign. They respond to police sirens, flashing lights on fire trucks or ambulances, and stop signs that fold out of school buses.

They react to people on scooters, people using bike lanes, and cars driving on the wrong side of the road. "In short, they are designed to drive safely by obeying the law and driving in a humanlike way," he says. Actually, that sounds better than humans.

When vehicles encounter a situation where they aren’t 100 percent sure of what to do, they slow down or stop and pull over to the side of the road. This has caused some bumps in San Francisco where cars stopped and idled in the street for no apparent reason, delaying bus riders and disrupting the work of firefighters.

Some of the "bumps" have been comical, such as the 2022 incident in which a confused San Francisco police officer pulled a Cruise over, and then the Cruise drove away.

And as Reuters notes , autonomous vehicles have not rolled out as fast as anticipated, due to regulations, safety investigations, and arduous technology.

When Cruise first enters a city, they hire a mapping and data collection team to learn bike lanes, school zones, and major intersections. But most of the time, the vehicles will be carrying riders in the back seat, or completely empty and en route to another pickup.

The company partners with first responders, including police and fire departments, to ensure they’re ready and familiar with how to interact with the vehicles, engaging with those agencies before and after launch.

"Our guiding mission has always been to improve road safety, reduce emissions, and reduce congestion with our driverless ride-hail service in cities, which is where we’ll see the most significant positive impact the soonest," Vogt says. "Houston and Dallas are committed to reducing traffic deaths as part of their Vision Zero commitments, and we are excited to operate in and partner with these new communities in this shared mission."

This article originally ran on CultureMap .

Cruise rolls out self-driving car service in Houston - InnovationMap ›

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Cruise opens robotaxi service in Houston

This while it's facing backlash in san francisco for 'recent concerning incidents'.

GM's self-driving car subsidiary Cruise has opened its robotaxi service to users in Houston — an expansion that comes amid increasing criticism of the company's operations in San Francisco, it's first launch city.

Cruise said it will operate seven days a week from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in about 11 square miles of sprawling Houston, including Downtown, Midtown, East Downtown, Montrose, Hyde Park, and River Oaks neighborhoods. The company; Cruise has about 400 vehicles spread across Austin, Houston, Phoenix and San Francisco. While the company doesn't break down how many vehicles are in each city, it typically launches in a new city with a small fleet — around a dozen — and scales from there.

Cruise, which is headquartered in San Francisco, expanded into Texas late last year. The company started testing its self-driving Chevy Bolts in Austin, where it added its purpose-built Origin vehicles in spring 2023. In May, Cruise began testing its robotaxis — with a human safety driver behind the wheel — in Houston and Dallas . Cruise then expanded to so-called driverless testing, which means the human safety operator was no longer behind the wheel. The company said that in August it began offering driverless rides to Cruise employees and "select friends and family."

Cruise said it has driven about 1 million miles in Texas. The announcement Thursday now gives customers the ability to order a driverless robotaxi via the Cruise app. In a bid to boost demand, Cruise is offering $5 flat fares for all trips for a limited time.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Cruise is facing a backlash from some citizens and city officials who contend that the robotaxis are not ready for commercial operation in the wake of several incidents involving the vehicles.

Cruise reduced its robotaxi fleet by 50% in San Francisco following a crash with a fire truck — just days after receiving the last permit it needed to commercially operate 24 hours a day and throughout the city. The California Department of Motor Vehicles, the agency that regulates the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles in the state, requested the reduction in operations. The state agency said at the time it is investigating “recent concerning incidents” involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco. It called for Cruise to reduce its fleet by 50% and have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150 driverless vehicles in operation at night until the investigation is complete.

Cruise was also involved in an incident in early October that left a woman stuck underneath one of its robotaxi after being hit by a human-driven vehicle. A video viewed by TechCrunch showed that the human-driven vehicle struck the pedestrian first; the woman flew over the hood and into the other lane, where the Cruise vehicle braked and then ran over her.

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Self-driving robotaxies cruise into houston with new rideshare service.

Cruising without a driver.

A new driverless ridehail service is coming to Houston: Cruise , the all-electric, driverless car company backed by GM, is expanding in Texas with launches in both Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

This follows an initial launch in Austin in 2022, their first city in Texas.

Cruise builds and operates driverless vehicles that you can call via an app, like any other ride hailing service. "But our vehicles show up without anyone else inside," they say.

The entire fleet is all-electric and the vehicles are equipped with a 360-view, with the ability to react to whatever they encounter on the road.

They test their vehicles using simulations, through millions of scenarios and virtual miles; they’ve also driven more than 4 million real miles, mostly in San Francisco.

Some of the "bumps" have been comical, such as the 2022 incident in which a confused San Francisco police officer pulled a Cruise over, and then the Cruise drove away.

And as Reuters notes , autonomous vehicles have not rolled out as fast as anticipated, due to regulations, safety investigations, and arduous technology.

Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta buys more than 5 acres of Galleria-area properties

Houston's smash hit detroit pizzeria shines with new bellaire location, houston dazzles as no. 1 most diverse large city in u.s., report says, houston's growing startup scene, houston ranks among world's top cities for startup growth, study finds.

A new ranking signals great promise for the growth of Houston’s startup network.

Houston ranks among the world’s top 50 startup cities on a new list from PitchBook, a provider of data and research about capital markets. In fact, Houston comes in at No. 50 in the ranking. But if you dig deeper into the data, Houston comes out on top in one key category.

The city earns a growth score of 63.8 out of 100 — the highest growth score of any U.S. city and the seventh highest growth score in the world. In the growth bucket, Houston sits between between Paris (64.4) and Washington, D.C. (61.7).

The PitchBook growth score reflects short-term, midterm, and long-term growth momentum for activity surrounding venture capital deals, exits, and fundraising for the past six years.

PitchBook’s highest growth score (86.5) goes to Hefei, a Chinese manufacturing hub for electric vehicles, solar panels, liquid crystal displays, home appliances, and Lenovo computers.

The overall ranking is based on a scoring system that relies on proprietary PitchBook data about private companies. The system’s growth and development scores are based on data related to deals, exits, fundraising and other factors.

Houston earns a development score of 34.1 out of 100, which puts it in 50th place globally in that regard. This score measures the size and maturity of a city’s startup network.

Topping the overall list is San Francisco, followed by New York City and Beijing. Elsewhere in Texas, Austin appears at No. 16 and Dallas at No. 36.

The ranking “helps founders, operators, and investors assess locations when deciding where to expand or invest,” says PitchBook.

“Network effects matter in venture capital: Investors get more than half of their deals through referrals, according to research led by Harvard professor Paul Gompers,” PitchBook goes on to say. “So it stands to reason that dealmakers should seek these networks out when deciding where to do business.”

Cruise driverless rideshare debuts in select Houston neighborhoods

Houstonians can now take self-driving cars to some Inner Loop destinations with GM's Cruise taxis.

After months of testing in Houston, Cruise autonomous vehicles became available Thursday to the public for rides from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in downtown, Midtown, East Downtown, Montrose, Hyde Park and River Oaks. Anyone can sign up to ride on its website .

For a limited time, all trips will be $5. In the future, customers will be charged a base fare plus a per-mile, per-minute basis.

Testing of the autonomous vehicles began in May, with a Cruise employee monitoring the cars. And since August, Cruise employees have been the first to use the driverless cars. Cruise vehicles use a variety of sensors and cameras that provide a 360-degree view of everything around the car, and artificial intelligence makes real-time predictions based on this data.

The technology originated in San Francisco and has since expanded to Austin, Phoenix and now Houston. According to the company, it has driven 5 million driverless miles, including 1 million in Texas. The company, backed by GM, Honda, Microsoft, T. Rowe Price and Walmart, also does driverless deliveries for Walmart in Phoenix.

While driverless vehicles may be exciting to some, they're concerning to others. Last month, a traffic jam was caused by a group of autonomous Cruise cars on a busy Austin road.

In May, Peter Stone, a University of Texas at Austin professor researching how to make autonomous cars safer, noted that the positive to these cars is that when one makes a mistake , you can, in principle, fix that mistake for the entire fleet.

Cruise self-driving 'robo-taxis' begin driving passengers across downtown Houston

Self-driving cars available in houston.

People in Houston can now use self-driving cars to get rides across the city. The autonomous service recently got started but not without some controversy. FOX 26's Matthew Seedorff has more on the new rideshare service.

HOUSTON - Self-driving taxi vehicles are now operating in certain areas of Houston.

Last week, Cruise launched its autonomous robo-taxi service with roughly 20 vehicles in Houston. Right now, the rides are available from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. between downtown, River Oaks, EaDo, and Montrose.

"I’ve seen them driving around the neighborhood at nighttime," said Greg Woodard. "There’s nobody in the car. Kind of freaked me out."

Houston is the fourth city in the country to have Cruise vehicles operating following San Francisco, Austin, and Phoenix. In addition, Cruise is testing its vehicles in 10 other cities across the United States.

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The business works similar ly to other ride-share apps, but instead of a human driver behind the wheel, cars are operated by computers.

"It doesn’t take long to relax and realize that you have a [computer] driver that’s taking you where you need to go," said Sola Lawal, General Manager for Cruise Houston.

As we reported last month, three cruise vehicles stopped and briefly blocked an intersection in Montrose after a thunderstorm knocked out power in the area. The traffic lights at the time were stuck on red.

MORE: United Airlines issues new boarding policy – and it’s a perk for middle seat flyers

"Three Cruise autonomous vehicles (AV) with no drivers were stopped at Hawthorne and Montrose," said Alexander Spike. "The vehicles did not understand that it had become a 4-way stop. [They] were waiting for the lights to turn green."

Following the incident, a spokesperson from Cruise told FOX 26 that their vehicles are programmed to be cautious when driving in complex situations.

"Our vehicles were stopped at an intersection where the lights were not cycling and showed all red," said a Cruise spokesperson. "While some vehicles took a little time to safely navigate the intersection, all vehicles were able to clear the intersection autonomously. Safety is embedded in everything we do, and our vehicles are designed to adhere to traffic signals and follow rules of the road."

FOX 26 Houston is now on the FOX LOCAL app available through Apple TV, Amazon FireTV, Roku and Google Android TV!

This week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into the company, following reports of two incidents involving self-driving cars and pedestrians.

"Cruise’s safety record over 5 million miles continues to outperform comparable human drivers at a time when pedestrian injuries and deaths are at an all-time high," said a spokesperson from Cruise. "Cruise communicates regularly with NHTSA and has consistently cooperated with each of NHTSA’s requests for information –– whether associated with an investigation or not –– and we plan to continue doing so."

Currently, there are roughly 20 Cruise vehicles operating in Houston and only at night. However, this service could soon increase.

"Yeah, I’ll try it," said Woodard. "Especially if I’m going out and don’t want to drive."

self driving car

Montrose residents on driverless taxis tying up traffic: 'Something out of a cartoon'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The autonomous car company Cruise is now testing a fleet of driverless taxis in a Montrose neighborhood without human operators. Previously, the cars were operated with a safety driver.

The Houston Police Department said there have been several calls for service regarding these self-driving cars . The most recent call happened early Tuesday evening.

City officials said traffic lights were malfunctioning at an intersection in Montrose. All of the lights were red. This caused several of the cars to come to a complete stop for several minutes, tying up traffic.

Other major cities where these cars are being tested have reported major traffic jams.

"It does make sense that the Cruise vehicles stopped because it wasn't flashing red. It was red, but once police were there and waving traffic, you'd kind of hope they'd move," Montrose resident Simon Newton said.

Newton recorded a video of the car stuck at the stop light. He said officers weren't sure how to get the car to move.

"It was almost a bit humorous. These guys trying to get people around these metal big boxes sitting in the middle of the street," Montrose resident Alexander Spike said.

Spike and Newton said they think the cars should still be tested with a driver inside until these issues are resolved.

"These things need to understand that there's surprises on the road," Newton said.

A spokesperson for Cruise said the cars reacted in a way that was appropriate, by following the traffic laws.

"The overwhelming majority of the time, our cars can proceed autonomously even though some may do so after a brief delay," they told ABC13.

Spike and Newton were worried about what might happen in an emergency situation. Eyewitness News asked HPD if there was a protocol for how to deal with these cars and learned there isn't, according to a department official. However, the HPD official said that officers will enforce the law.

Newton said these protocols should have been worked out before the cars hit the road.

The Cruise spokesperson and city of Houston officials said they are working to develop these protocols. The city noted that they have no regulatory authority over autonomous vehicle operators due to S.B. 2205, a state law governing these autonomous vehicles that was passed in 2017.

"Right now, if they're not handling people and some norms of the road properly, maybe it's a little too early for autonomous at the moment," Newton said.

For news updates, follow Jiovanni Lieggi on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

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Us opens investigation into ford crashes involving blue cruise partially automated driving system.

Associated Press

DETROIT – Two fatal crashes involving Ford's Blue Cruise partially automated driving system have drawn the attention of U.S. auto safety regulators.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation of the crashes, both involving Mustang Mach-E electric vehicles on freeways in nighttime lighting conditions, the agency said in documents Monday.

Tractor-trailers with no one aboard? The future is near for self-driving trucks on US roads

PITTSBURGH (AP) — On a three-lane test track along the Monongahela River, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rounded a curve. No one was on board.

A quarter-mile ahead, the truck’s sensors spotted a trash can blocking one lane and a tire in another. In less than a second, it signaled, moved into the unobstructed lane and rumbled past the obstacles.

The self-driving semi, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks.

Within three or four years, Aurora and its competitors expect to put thousands such self-driving trucks on America’s public freeways. The goal is for the trucks, which can run nearly around the clock without any breaks, to speed the flow of goods, accelerating delivery times and perhaps lowering costs. They’ll travel short distances on secondary roads, too.

The companies say the autonomous trucks will save on fuel, too, because they don’t have to stop and will drive at more consistent speeds. Also, Aurora says its testing has shown that if a maintenance issue arises while one of its trucks is traveling on a freeway, the vehicle will automatically pull to the side of the road and remotely call for assistance.

The interior of the cab of a self driving truck is shown as the truck maneuvers around a test...

The image of a fully loaded, 80,000-pound driverless truck weaving around cars on a super-highway at 65 mph or more may strike a note of terror. A poll conducted in January by AAA found that a decisive majority of American drivers — 66% — said they would fear riding in an autonomous vehicle.

But in less than nine months, a seven-year science experiment by Aurora will end, and driverless trucks will start carrying loads between terminals for FedEx, Uber Freight, Werner and other partners. Aurora and most of its rivals plan to start running freight routes in Texas, where snow and ice are generally rare.

For years, it seemed as though the initial venture for autonomous vehicles would be ride hailing in large cities. But General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi unit is struggling in the aftermath of a serious crash. And Alphabet’s Waymo faces opposition to expanding its autonomous ride service in California. The result is that self-driving trucks are poised to become the first computer-controlled vehicles deployed in widespread numbers on public roads.

The vehicles have drawn skepticism from safety advocates, who warn that with almost no federal regulation, it will be mainly up to the companies themselves to determine when the semis are safe enough to operate without humans on board. The critics complain that federal agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, take a generally passive approach to safety, typically acting only after crashes occur. And most states provide scant regulation.

But Aurora and other companies that are developing the systems argue that years of testing show that their trucks will actually be safer than human-driven ones. They note that the vehicles’ laser and radar sensors can “see” farther than human eyes can. The trucks never tire, as human drivers do. They never become distracted or impaired by alcohol or drugs.

“We want to be out there with thousands or tens of thousands of trucks on the road,” said Chris Urmson, Aurora’s CEO and formerly head of Google’s autonomous vehicle operations. “And to do that, we have to be safe. It’s the only way that the public will accept it. Frankly, it’s the only way our customers will accept it.”

Phil Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies vehicle automation safety, said he agreed that self-driving trucks can theoretically be safer than human-driven ones — for the very reason that they lack drivers who might become distracted or impaired. But he cautioned that the vehicles’ computers inevitably will make errors. And just how the trucks will fare in real-world situations, he said, will depend on the quality of their safety engineering.

With billions of dollars in investments at stake, Koopman said, he wonders how the companies will balance safety decisions against cost concerns.

“Everything I see indicates they’re trying to do the right thing,” he said. “But the devil is in the details.”

A self-driving tractor trailer maneuvers around a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March...

On the test track, reporters saw Aurora’s semis avoid simulations of road obstacles, including pedestrians, a blown tire, even a horse. But the trucks were running at only 35 mph (56 kilometers per hour) in a controlled environment with nothing unexpected happening. (The trucks are being tested with human safety drivers on Texas freeways at speeds of 65 mph (105 kph) or higher.)

On the track, the trucks spotted obstacles more than a quarter-mile away and acted immediately to avoid them. Urmson said the trucks’ laser sensors can detect people walking on a highway at night, far beyond the distance of headlights.

Since 2021, Aurora trucks have autonomously hauled freight over 1 million miles on public highways — but with human safety drivers in the cabs. There have been only three crashes, Urmson said, all of them caused by mistakes by human drivers in other vehicles.

The crashes turned out to be minor, with no injuries. And in each case, the company said, the Aurora truck was able to safely pull to the side of the road.

A federal database that started in June 2021 shows at least 13 crashes with other vehicles involving autonomous semis, including three involving Aurora. In all the cases, the crashes were caused by other vehicles changing lanes or rear-ending the trucks. Sometimes, human safety drivers took over just before the crash.

Aurora won’t compromise safety, Urmson said, even if ensuring it might delay the timetable for achieving a profit.

“If we put a vehicle on the road that isn’t sufficiently safe — that we aren’t confident in the safety of — then it kills everything else,” he said.

Last month, when Urmson displayed the trucks to Wall Street analysts in Pittsburgh, he said the publicly held company expects to turn a profit by late 2027 or early 2028. To meet that goal, Aurora must succeed in putting thousands of the trucks on the roads, hauling freight from terminal to terminal and collecting a per-mile charge from customers.

The company’s competitors — Plus.ai, Gatik, Kodiak Robotics and others — also plan soon to put driverless trucks on the roads hauling freight for customers. Gatik expects it to happen this year or next; the others haven’t set timetables.

Don Burnette, CEO of Kodiak, said freeways are a better environment for autonomous vehicles than congested cities where ride-hailing robotaxis have been running. There are fewer pedestrians, and fewer unexpected things happen. Still, there are higher speeds and longer braking distances.

In testing on highways with human backup drivers, Burnette said, Kodiak has never experienced a crash in which its trucks were at fault.

“At the end of the day,” Burnette said, “these trucks should be much safer than human drivers.”

Almost every year in the United States, a tractor-trailer plows into traffic that is stopped because of road construction, often causing deaths and injuries. By contrast, Burnette said, autonomous trucks pay attention all the time and are always watching 360 degrees.

Perhaps so. But at a Buc-ee’s mega convenience store and gas station along Interstate 45 about 35 miles south of Dallas, the prospect of driverless semis struck a note of fear.

“It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen,” said Kent Franz, a high school basketball coach in Chandler, Oklahoma, who was traveling to Houston for a wedding. “I’ve heard of the driverless cars — Tesla, what have you — and the accidents they’ve been having. Eighteen-wheelers? Something that heavy, relying on technology that has proven it can be faulty? Doesn’t sound very comfortable to me.”

Patti Pierce, a retired accountant from Plano, Texas, said she would be OK with the technology — in about a decade.

“I don’t want to be on the road with them right now,” she said. “I like the gadgets in my car, but I’m not sure the technology is good enough right now to have a truck that drives itself.”

No federal regulations specifically cover autonomous vehicles, Koopman of Carnegie Mellon noted. Most states have no such regulations, either. Koopman said the automated-vehicle industry has persuaded many states to bar local governments from enacting such regulations. The result, he said, is that the public must trust the companies that are deploying autonomous semis.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, both part of the federal Department of Transportation, lack authority to stop autonomous vehicles from going on the roads. If something goes wrong, though, they can require recalls or order trucks out of service.

“You can’t expect the government to protect you here,” Koopman said. “The company’s going to decide when they think they’re safe, and the only thing the regulator is going to do is judge them after the fact.”

For the past five years, the motor carrier administration has been preparing safety standards for trucks with automated driving systems. The standards will govern inspections, maintenance and the remote monitoring of the trucks. But it’s unclear when the rules will emerge from the regulatory process.

In the meantime, the autonomous semi companies say they can help address a truck driver shortage, estimated by the industry to amount to 64,000 drivers. Yet there also are worries that autonomous trucks eventually will supplant human drivers and cost them their livelihoods.

The Teamsters union, which represents about 600,000 drivers, most of them truckers, is pushing state legislatures to require human drivers to monitor the self-driving systems, contending that they are unsafe. A 2021 Transportation Department study concluded that the nationwide use of fully automated semis was years away, giving drivers time to transition to other transportation and logistics jobs that will be created.

Aurora’s Urmson said he thinks driverless semis will complement the work already done by human drivers, because many more goods will have to be moved for a growing population.

“If you’re driving a truck today,” he said, “my expectation is you’re going to be able to retire driving a truck.”

AP Business Writer David Koenig contributed to this report from Dallas and AP Data Journalist Aaron Kessler from Washington.

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Check out this Waymo robotaxi driving on the wrong side of the road

Waymo said its vehicle was avoiding a pack of unicyclists.

Waymo’s lovable and ungovernable driverless taxis aren’t playing by the rules again in San Francisco. Bystanders spotted a robotaxi driving down the wrong side of a city street. The robotaxi company claims its vehicle was avoiding a pack of unicyclists. While we can all agree that hitting a person should be avoided at all costs, deciding to drive on the opposite side of the road is just as dangerous.

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Self-driving 18-wheelers are coming to Texas highways soon. Here's what we know

Picture this: You're driving along a highway near an 18-wheeler, and you happen to peer into the cab. But you see no driver and no one even inside the vehicle.

It could become a reality as soon as this year.

Here's what we know:

Self-driving semis coming to Texas

Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. plans to begin rolling out its self-driving semis later in the year. The vehicles are equipped with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors.

The company will haul freight along Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas. Texas highways are typically free of snow and ice, making them desirable for initial use of the self-driving technology.

The vehicles will carry loads between terminals for FedEx, Uber Freight, Werner and others, according to CBS News Texas .

In a few more years, these self-driving 18-wheelers might number in the thousands as Aurora and similar companies put more on public highways.

More on self-driving vehicles: Driverless startup Waymo to test self-driving vehicles with no human driver in Austin

Benefits of self-driving semis

The successful implementation of self-driving tractor-trailers stands to make the transportation of goods more efficient. Such vehicles eliminate the need for breaks and can therefore travel for longer periods of time, cutting down delivery times. According to Aurora's site , they are only required to stop for fueling, loading and maintenance.

Aurora says its products can bring loads from Los Angeles to Dallas in under 24 hours.

The company also claims its self-driving 18-wheelers are safer than human drivers, who might get tired, distracted or otherwise impaired. The vehicles' sensors can also pick up visuals farther than the human eye can see − more than a quarter-mile away.

"We want to be out there with thousands or tens of thousands of trucks on the road," Aurora CEO Chris Urmson said. "And to do that, we have to be safe. It's the only way that the public will accept it. Frankly, it's the only way our customers will accept it."

Risks of self-driving semis

An AAA survey conducted in March revealed most U.S. drivers had negative emotions regarding autonomous vehicles: 66% expressed fear, and 25% were concerned.

Safety advocates are wary of the largely unregulated industry of autonomous vehicles. Companies like Aurora determine if their vehicles are safe to travel on public roads.

On test tracks, Aurora's self-driving semis were able to avoid road obstacles such as people, a blown tire and a horse. However, the vehicles in such tests only traveled 35 miles per hour in a controlled environment, raising concerns about how speed and unexpected elements might affect them.

The severity of accidents involving tractor-trailers driven by humans is already a cause for concern. Trucks carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds in freight, combined with high speeds, can easily prove fatal in crashes.

People are also reading: 2 dead, 1 hurt after 350,000-pound load detaches from 18-wheeler and pins vehicle in Texas

While self-driving semis might address the current truck driver shortage, some in the industry fear they will eliminate the need for truck drivers. This is part of a larger trend of concern that technology is taking jobs away from human workers.

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Tractor-trailers with no one aboard? The future is near for self-driving trucks on US roads

In less than nine months, Aurora Innovation Inc., an autonomous transportation company, will launch up to 20 driverless trucks carrying loads on Texas highways for partners such as FedEx, Uber Freight and Werner. (AP Video: Jessie Wardarski)

A self-driving tractor trailer maneuvers around a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

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The interior of the cab of a self driving truck is shown as the truck maneuvers around a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

A self-driving tractor trailer is displayed at a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

A self-driving tractor trailer maneuvers around a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — On a three-lane test track along the Monongahela River, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rounded a curve. No one was on board.

AP AUDIO: Tractor-trailers with no one aboard? The future is near for self-driving trucks on US roads.

AP correspondent Jennifer King reports.

FILE - Cruise AV, General Motor's autonomous electric Bolt EV, is seen on Jan. 16, 2019, in Detroit. Cruise, the troubled General Motors autonomous vehicle unit, has hired Steve Kenner, a veteran automotive and technology company safety official, for the critical position of chief safety officer. Kenner started the job on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)