GM and Zoox Robot Cars Battle It Out in San Francisco
November 29 2017 - 8:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Tim Higgins
SAN FRANCISCO--In the race to turn robot taxis into a business,
the country's largest auto maker and a young rival upstart have
taken to the streets here, believing the hilly city will help them
catch up to Google parent Alphabet Inc.
On Tuesday, General Motors Co., for the first time since
acquiring driverless-car software company Cruise Automation,
demonstrated its autonomous Chevrolet Bolt electric cars to
journalists with test rides.
Separately, Zoox allowed The Wall Street Journal in one of its
vehicles for the same sort of ride the startup is giving investors
as it seeks to raise as much as $500 million in funding, according
to people familiar with the matter. Zoox, founded in 2014, is
pushing for a valuation of at least $3 billion, these people say,
compared with last year's $1.55 billion value.
The efforts by two competitors to build up their driving
abilities in a busy city center mark a different path than
Alphabet's Waymo, which drove millions of miles on public roads,
many in Mountain View, Calif., before picking suburban Phoenix to
scale up its initial deployment. There, Waymo is testing the first
fleet of vehicles without humans behind the wheel, and it plans to
soon begin giving rides to non-company employees.
The Phoenix metro area has arguably better weather than San
Francisco for the sensitive sensors and less complex driving
scenarios. Arizona also allows for testing of fully driverless
technology, while California still requires a safety operator in
the car, a rule on track to change next year under proposed
regulations.
GM and Zoox, which both have safety operators in their cars,
believe San Francisco is best suited for the initial deployment of
autonomous vehicles in confined urban environments for so-called
mobility services, similar to Uber Technologies Inc.'s ride-hailing
app but with robot cars. Uber is operating more than a dozen
self-driving cars in San Francisco, though it isn't ferrying
passengers as it does in Pittsburgh.
"One minute of driving in a place like San Francisco is
equivalent to an hour or more in a less denser suburban
environment," Kyle Vogt, head of Cruise, told reporters.
GM's strategy is centered around bringing the fully driverless
technology to market as quickly and as safely as possible, rather
than first launching a ride-hailing service with humans behind the
wheel, Mr. Vogt said. The company hasn't begun testing its vehicles
without human safety operators on public roads, he said in an
interview.
Zoox has ambitious plans to create a robot vehicle from the
ground up, creating a lounge-like space for traveling initially in
urban environments. The service would be summoned by
smartphone.
During Tuesday's demonstration, the Cruise car wasn't as smooth
or as advanced as Waymo's demonstration last month on a closed
course that involved no humans in the front seats.
But Cruise--founded in 2013 and acquired by GM last year in a
deal potentially valued at more than $1 billion--demonstrated cars
navigating more complex driving scenarios than those shown by many
developers.
During one of the four routes offered, for example, the Cruise
vehicle traveled at low speeds for about 20 minutes as it wound its
way through an industrial part of the city full of hills, cars
parked along the roadways and delivery trucks making ill-timed
stops.
The overall ride was hesitant at times, as if it had a cautious
new driver. A few motorists lost patience with the Cruise
vehicle--honking and aggressively passing--as the driverless car
stopped behind double-parked vehicles or slowed through
intersections.
GM executives said the cautiousness displayed during the
demonstration underscores the company's priority for safety over
comfort, which will be developed over time.
The safety operators in the Cruise and Zoox vehicles never
needed to take control during the demos, unlike during a shorter
trip a year ago in an Uber self-driving vehicle.
Zoox's converted Toyota sport-utility vehicle followed a route
the company has taken several times for potential investors,
beginning at an office in the city's busy Financial District,
including a left-hand turn, handling jaywalkers and yielding for
pedestrians at busy intersections.
The ride seemed smoother than in Cruise's car but Zook's demo
was about a third of the distance and didn't include as many
unusual driving scenarios.
Rolfe Winkler and Mike Colias contributed to this article.
Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 29, 2017 08:14 ET (13:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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