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Cruise robotaxis are back on the road, but for now there will be humans in the drivers' seats, and the company is only driving them around "to create maps and gather road information," starting in Phoenix, Arizona. No driverless rides just yet.
The move comes after Cruise was forced to halt its driverless taxi operations after a vehicle in San Francisco hit a pedestrian who had been thrown into its path following a separate collision. Kyle Vogt also resigned as CEO.
In Phoenix, Cruise will use "human-driven vehicles without autonomous systems engaged," which the company says "is a critical step for validating our self-driving systems as we work towards returning to our driverless mission."
Results from Phoenix "will help inform where we ultimately will resume driverless operations."
Eventually, Cruise will "conduct this manual and supervised driving in multiple cities," but the company says it does not have a timeline for expanded tests.
The mapping will help the company tune the AI for things like speed limits, construction zones, stop signs, turn-only lanes, and other road features. Once that phase is over, cars will go on test runs with autonomous systems turned on and a human driver who can intervene and prevent any incidents from occurring. The AI will be further tuned with closed-course driving and simulations. Once all the safety and learning have been completed to Cruise's standards, the company will restart its autonomous vehicle service.
"We’ve made significant progress, guided by new company leadership, recommendations from third-party experts, and a focus on a close partnership with the communities in which our vehicles operate," Cruise says. "We are committed to this improvement as a continuous effort."
Rival autonomous-driving services have also had trouble in recent months. Waymo, from Google parent company Alphabet, recalled its entire fleet after two of its vehicles hit the same tow truck on the same day.
Despite trouble with its Autopilot system, meanwhile, Tesla plans to unveil a robotaxi on Aug. 8.