The General Motors-run autonomous vehicle company Cruise asked California on Monday for approval to broaden its testing region to the whole state, as reported by ABC News.
The company has already been testing its self-driving cars in San Francisco, where it is headquartered, for more than two years now. While the GM-backed company hasn’t yet announced plans to expand testing, its move to become certified statewide by the Department of Motor Vehicles could allow it to grow to other major cities including Los Angeles.
Cruise spokesperson Drew Pusateri described the move as the first in what Cruise hopes will be an ongoing relationship with the California DMV.
“While this application doesn’t represent any immediate change to our testing or operations, we hope to continue working with the California DMV to safely and responsibly test our services in other cities in the future,” Pusateri said.
The test permit won’t let Cruise carry non-worker passengers beyond San Francisco, but it would approve employee driving of up to 55 miles per hour (88km/hr) throughout California, according to the company.
Currently, Cruise is facing an investigation from U.S. safety regulators over reports of its vehicles coming to unexpected stops, and even stranding some passengers.
Cruise, Waymo Face Pushback on Robotaxi Expansion in San Francisco https://t.co/kqPaZ94llN
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) January 29, 2023
