GM and DoorDash Announce Self-Driving Cars Delivering Food In San Francisco

'General Motors is partnering with DoorDash to enable on-demand food deliveries via driverless cars,' reports VentureBeat.
An anonymous reader quotes their report:
The duo announced that a pilot delivery program will kick off in San Francisco in 'early 2019,' and will involve both meals from restaurants and groceries.... Back in 2016, GM splashed out more than $1 billion to buy Cruise Automation, a startup that developed an autopilot system for existing cars. In the intervening months, the company has been doubling down on its autonomous car efforts, last year announcing a driverless car with no steering wheel or pedals, with plans to launch the vehicle sometime in 2019. Elsewhere, GM also revealed that it is investing $100 million into facilities for building self-driving cars, while Honda recently put $2 billion into GM's Cruise for a 5.7 percent stake....

GM and DoorDash haven't revealed the full extent of the pilot or what the next stage will be, but it did say that 'select merchants' that are already using DoorDash in the San Francisco area are on board. The underlying purpose, it said, is to 'test and improve' the efficiency of autonomous deliveries in the area. 'We see autonomous vehicles playing a major role in the future of delivery as consumer behaviors continue to shift online, and we are confident Cruise's leading technology will help us scale to meet growing consumer demand,' noted DoorDash CEO Tony Xu.

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