Alphabets Waymo and GMs Cruise get California DMV approval to run commercial driverless car services
Summary
In June, Cruise earned a permit enabling it to offer driverless rides to passengers in test vehicles in California. Waymo opened self-driving car testing to some San Francisco residents through a program dubbed "Trusted Tester" last month. Since acquiring Cruise in 2016, GM has brought on investors such as Honda Motor, SoftBank Vision Fund, and, more recently, Walmart and Microsoft. "Todays approval from the California DMV makes Cruise the first autonomous ride-hail company to receive a driverless deployment permit in the state. It brings us one step closer to achieving our mission to make transportation safer, better, and more affordable in cities with our fleet of all-electric, self-driving and shared vehicles," Rob Grant, Cruise senior vice president of government affairs and social impact, said in an emailed statement to CNBC.