GM Cruise Prepping Launch Of Driverless Car Pilot In San Francisco: Emails

But ahead of that, GM’s self-driving unit, GM Cruise, is aiming to deploy autonomous cars without a driver at the wheel as part of a pilot program in San Francisco that, emails obtained by Jalopnik suggest, could launch imminently.

As recently as last month, Cruise officials were corresponding with the San Francisco mayor’s office about using some of the city’s first responder vehicles for autonomous car tests and data collection. The training exercise, a Cruise officials wrote in one email, “is critical to both public and vehicle safety” ahead of “driverless deployment.”

“I am happy to discuss the details of the exercise and why it’s critical to our forthcoming public launch and law enforcement interaction plan requirements,” Nadia Marquez, GM Cruise’s senior government relations manager, wrote in a May 2 email, obtained by Jalopnik through a public records request.

It’s unclear how soon Cruise plans to launch the pilot, but multiple emails suggest the goal is to deploy in the near-future.