Starting early 2026, the service will leverage
the Cruise Origin, designed in collaboration with GM and
Honda
TOKYO, Oct. 18,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- From the beginning, Cruise's
mission has been to improve road safety, reduce emissions, and
reduce congestion. As we work toward our goal of delivering our
driverless tech to more people in more places, Cruise, alongside GM
and Honda, has entered into a memorandum of understanding to
establish a new joint venture (JV) to provide driverless ridehail
service in Japan starting in early
2026.
"There is an important and growing societal need for safe and
accessible transportation in Japan
that autonomous vehicles can provide a solution for," said Cruise
CEO Kyle Vogt. "In addition to
societal impact, the business opportunity is also exciting, as
Japan represents one of the
largest potential autonomous vehicle ridehail markets in the world,
with many dense, highly populated cities that have high
transportation needs."
Co-developed with GM and Honda, the Cruise Origin will offer
customers in Japan
an entirely new kind of mobility experience. The purpose-built
autonomous vehicle can carry up to six passengers with comfortable
camp-fire seating. Approximately 500 Origins will be manufactured
by GM for the launch of this new JV at Factory ZERO
Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant in Michigan.
"GM has always been invested in defining the future of
transportation and that's more true today than ever," said GM Chair
and CEO Mary Barra. "The benefits of
AVs — from safety to accessibility — are too profound to ignore and
through this important partnership with Cruise and Honda, we're
bringing forward innovation that leverages our expertise in
cutting-edge software and hardware to help more people around the
world get where they need to go."
In offering this driverless ridehail service, the new venture
will coordinate and collaborate with various stakeholders,
including the national and local governments, and transportation
service providers in Japan. The
service aims to help address a driver shortage in Japan, and offer a safer, more accessible form
of transportation.
"Honda is striving to create the 'joy and freedom of mobility.'
Through our driverless ride service with Cruise and GM, we will
enable customers in Japan to
experience a new value of mobility, improve the quality of their
mobility experiences and offer the joy of mobility," said Global
CEO of Honda Toshihiro Mibe. "This will be a major step toward the
realization of an advanced mobility society. Providing this service
in central Tokyo where the traffic
environment is complex will be a great challenge, however, by
working jointly with Cruise and GM, Honda will exert further
efforts to make it a reality."
Pending government approvals, initial testing will begin next
year and commercialization will begin in central Tokyo in early 2026. The three companies plan
to subsequently expand and scale the service to areas outside of
central Tokyo.
For more information, please contact:
- Honda: Corporate PR Block, Corporate Communications
Division - TEL: 03-5421-1512
- GM: General Motors, Communications -
aimee.ridella@gm.com
- Cruise: GM Cruise LLC, Communications -
media@getcruise.com
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SOURCE Cruise LLC