Cruise Automation, a California startup bankrolled by GM and Honda, unveiled an electric driverless bus, named Cruise Origin. The Level 4 Bus is without steering wheel and pedals will start offering rides via a Cruise pilot program. This rear-wheel drive minivan has space for four passengers has doesn’t have provision for driver, including the steering wheel, pedals, rearview mirrors, windshield wipers, and cramped seats.
The Cruise Origin is not bigger than average car, it’s just more efficient, and makes full use of the space it takes up on the road. The doors don’t hinge outward and slide open. The entry is low to the ground, and three times larger than that of an average car — wide enough to make room for one person to step in while another person steps out. Every seat is extra-legroom. And they all face each other, so passengers can have a conversation with family or friends.
The Cruise Origin is powered by a brand-new, all-electric platform built by General Motors. It’s got redundancy, meaning there are no single points of failure across sensing, compute, networking, or power as there’s no backup human driver. Its multi-layered sensor suite is designed to keep track of multiple people and objects — even if they’re far away, in pitch-black, or hidden by rain or fog. The Origin is modular means it’s upgradeable and the company can roll out a new fleet each time we build a better sensor or computer.
At this very moment, the company is running fleets of our third-generation vehicles on the roads of San Francisco, operating a rideshare service that any Cruise employee can use, 24/7. Last year alone, it has accumulated nearly a million miles as it autonomously drove nearly every road in San Francisco. The Cruise Origin will spend most of its life in motion, working 10 times than average car, day in and day out.
Source: Press Release
