HOUSTON — A driverless taxi service is launching in Houston.
Cruise, an autonomous vehicle operator said it will launch its initial public service starting Tuesday, Oct. 12.
“The most important thing is, this is a safer way to get around than driving in your vehicle,” Sola Lawal, general manager of Cruise’s Houston operation, told KHOU 11 News.
The service will be available from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in neighborhoods inside the loop, including Midtown, Montrose, River Oaks and downtown.
During the testing phase, residents and the City of Houston reported issues the vehicles have caused in traffic.
“The City has been made aware of a small number of incidents involving self-driving cars,” City of Houston’s Director of Innovation Jesse Bounds said. “We are in the process of creating a system to keep track of phone calls to 311 and 911 about autonomous vehicles and internal reports from city staff on incidents that affect traffic, transit or emergency services."
Two weeks ago, a delay along Montrose Boulevard near Hawthorne Street happened when a small fleet of autonomous vehicles were stalled at a traffic light that was malfunctioning.
Houston police were called in to direct traffic, but the AV wasn’t responding, according to witnesses. A Cruise spokesperson said the vehicles cleared the intersection autonomously within four minutes. Similar issues were reported in Austin, too.
Cruise said that in certain complex situations, its design errs on the side of being conservative and pulls over or otherwise comes to a safe stop.
“We are learning and improving the way most drivers honestly should be, we take that feedback into consideration when we improve the service, but it is a service that works really well,” Lawal said.
It’s not the only AV service coming to Houston, either.
According to the City, Cruise and Nuro are the only two AV operators that have plans to operate in Houston.
On Monday afternoon, KHOU learned the AVs have already been involved in three accidents during September.
According to an email to City of Houston staff, two of the vehicles were unoccupied. In one accident reported on September 28, the AV was hit by another vehicle "who appears to have been driving in the wrong direction." In that accident, Cruise staff were in the back seat but were not hurt.
A memo to city leaders obtained by KHOU11 said the Cruise vehicles are driving a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour.