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Cruise’s driverless autonomous cars start giving rides to paying passengers

The era of commercial autonomous robotaxi service is here — Cruise officially became the first company to offer fared rides to the general public in a major city as of late Wednesday. The milestone comes after Cruise received official approval from the California Public Utilities Commission in early June to operate driverless in a commercial capacity .

Initially, Cruise’s driverless autonomous offering will operate only between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and only on designated streets in the city. But the limits are part of a plan by regulators and the company to prove out the safety and efficacy of its system before deploying it in more locations at additional times. The new operating window already extends its total active time by 1.5 hours as compared to the free driverless test pilot service it was offering between June of last year and the debut of this paid service.

UPDATE: As of last night, fared rides are now rolling out to our customers in SF. If you’re waiting to take your first driverless ride, we’re inviting more people into our AVs each week, so sit tight— it’ll be worth it! 😉 https://t.co/UpjuQ9K81W pic.twitter.com/CwkD1LftnV — cruise (@Cruise) June 23, 2022

It sounds like Cruise is still a ways off from making this offering available far and wide to San Franciscans eager to take a trip with a robot chauffeur, but this is still a major step toward a future where AVs crawl the streets in big cities picking up paying fares.

Exclusive look at Cruise’s first driverless car without a steering wheel or pedals

The origin is the gm subsidiary’s first attempt to build an fully autonomous car from the ground up.

By Andrew J. Hawkins , transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.

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The not-a-car sits on the gleaming black stage surrounded by a halo of light. It’s orange and black and white, and roughly the same size as a crossover SUV, but somehow looks much larger from the outside. There is no obvious front to the vehicle, no hood, no driver or passenger side windows, no side-view mirrors. The symmetry of the exterior is oddly comforting. 

I am one of the first non-employees to see it, after being invited by self-driving company Cruise to come out to San Francisco for an early look. And what I see is a car. A weird-looking car, sure, but a car nonetheless. That’s what my brain tells me. But the company insists I’m not seeing what I’m seeing. One employee refers to it as “the property.”  

The company insists it’s not a car — one employee refers to it as “the property”  

It’s easier to describe what it’s not, rather than what it is. For example, it doesn’t look like a toaster on wheels, as some autonomous “people movers” tend to do. A microwave might be more accurate, but I’m not convinced.

Its official name is “Origin,” and Kyle Vogt, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Cruise, is clearly excited to be showing it off. With a broad smile, he reaches out and touches a button on the side, causing the doors to slide open with a little whoosh like something out of Star Wars . 

Inside are two bench seats facing each other, a pair of screens on either end... and nothing else. The absence of all the stuff you expect to see when climbing into a vehicle is jarring. No steering wheel, no pedals, no gear shift, no cockpit to speak of, no obvious way for a human to take control should anything go wrong. There’s a new car smell, but it’s not unpleasant. It’s almost like cucumber-infused water. 

“The way vehicles are designed, normally they have a hood in the front where the engine is and some storage in the trunk,” Vogt says, as we sit across from each other. “But when you don’t need all that stuff... we can have this enormous, spacious cabin without taking up any more space on the road than a regular car would. Which is kind of insane.”

But the Origin is arriving into an unforgiving world: half of Americans are skeptical to the point of being fearful about self-driving cars . They don’t mind a car that can drive itself — as long as they can take over when they choose. That’s impossible with this vehicle. I ask Vogt where he gets the confidence to take away everything we’ve come to associate with human driving. 

“when you don’t need all that stuff... we can have this enormous, spacious cabin”

“I guess it’s important to note that we haven’t validated and released our technology yet,” he says. “So we haven’t gone out there and said it’s safer than a human and getting ready for prime time. But we’re getting pretty close.”

Approximately 18 minutes later, after a brief tour of the vehicle and back-and-forth about the company’s grand plans for the Origin, Vogt says something bolder. “By the time this vehicle goes into production, we think the core software that drives our AVs will be at a superhuman level of performance and safer than the average human driver,” he says. “And we’ll be providing hard empirical evidence to back up that claim before we put people in a car without someone in it.” 

Cruise has often been described as a “division” or “unit” of General Motors, but the company prefers “majority owned subsidiary.” (The automaker technically owns two-thirds of Cruise, which it bought in 2016 .) However, GM isn’t the only major automaker in Cruise’s corner. In October 2018, Honda announced its plan to invest $2.75 billion in Cruise over 12 years. The company has also raised money from Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund and T. Rowe Price, and has a valuation of $19 billion. 

As part of the Honda deal, GM teamed up with the Japanese automaker to design a “purpose-built” self-driving car. A “purpose-built car” is not a normal car retrofitted to be self-driving, as a majority of the autonomous vehicles on the road today are. Rather, it’s a car designed from the ground up to drive itself. That would be in addition to the steering wheel-and-pedal-less Chevy Bolt that GM and Cruise are working on. At the time, Vogt teased a vehicle with “giant TV screens, a mini bar, and lay-flat seats.” 

“We built this car around the idea of not having a driver”

The Origin has none of these amenities, but Vogt insists its real asset is its modularity. “We built this car around the idea of not having a driver and specifically being used in a ride-share fleet,” he says. “This vehicle is engineered to last a million miles and all the interior components are replaceable. The compute is replaceable, the sensors are replaceable. And what that does is it drives the cost per mile down way lower than you could ever reach if you took a regular car and tried to retrofit it. The replacement cost and the upkeep of that would just kill you from a business standpoint.”

I don’t typically hear AV companies talk about “unit economics” and profitability. But that’s going to creep up sooner than a lot of people realize, Vogt says. Experts estimate that each self-driving car could cost upward of $300,000-$400,000, when taking into account the expensive sensors and computing software needed to allow the vehicles to drive themselves. Recouping those costs will be enormously challenging, and Cruise is trying to address that by building a car with more staying power than most personally owned vehicles. 

Cruise has been working on the design of the Origin for over three years, but Honda’s involvement “super charged” the effort. The two automakers didn’t collaborate on every tiny detail; instead, they split up the work based on their expertise. GM was responsible for the base vehicle design and the electric powertrain, while Honda helped create the interior’s “efficient use of space,” Vogt says. Meanwhile, Cruise handled the sensing and computing technologies, as well as the experience from the rider’s standpoint.

We don’t typically hear AV companies talk about “unit economics” and profitability

Vogt allows that the sensor suite could change before the vehicle goes into production. But right now, it has the standard configuration found in many AVs on the road today: radar, cameras and LIDAR laser sensors. The hard drive, stored in the trunk and housing the vehicle’s artificial intelligence and perception software, is cooled by the vehicle’s battery system, making it quieter and less prone to overheating than previous iterations. That means passengers riding in the forward-facing seats won’t have to experience overly toasty tushies ( as I have riding with another AV operator). 

Cruise, with Honda’s help, designed the interior of the vehicle primarily for shared rides. The screens, one on either side, will display an itinerary for picking up and dropping off each passenger, so riders know what to expect. Carpooling in the age of smartphones hasn’t exactly been the runaway success that ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft have hoped. But Cruise thinks its abundance of space can help minimize the friction. 

“It’s designed to be comfortable if it’s shared, but if it’s just you, you’ve got so much space in here you can really like stretch out,” he says, extending his legs so his feet almost touch mine. Almost, but not quite.

Look, as far as I’m concerned, Cruise’s Origin is a car. Cruise says it wants to “move beyond the car,” but I’m not convinced the absence of certain controls negates its inherent car-ness. As Vogt points out, it occupies the same amount of space as an SUV, and Cruise claims it can travel at normal city speeds. It is a car-like shape and does car-type things, like traveling down a road with people in it. And if there isn’t another good name for it — “the property” notwithstanding — then “car” will have to do.

I don’t begrudge the company for attempting to argue otherwise. The push for not-car-ness is evident in Cruise’s intense marketing campaign leading up to the unveiling of the Origin. The company recently emptied out its Instagram account — so long, photos of smiling people riding in the company’s fleet of self-driving Chevy Bolts — and posted a series of cryptic longitude and latitude coordinates that correspond with famous historical moments, like the invention of the compass and the steam locomotive. Not-car inventions that seriously changed how we travel, in other words.

as far as I’m concerned, Cruise’s Origin is a car

Even so, Cruise isn’t the first company to build and test a self-driving car without traditional controls. In December 2016, Google stunned the world when it revealed that it had put a blind man in one of its egg-shaped autonomous test vehicles and sent him out for a short ride around Austin, Texas. Google’s Firefly vehicle, audaciously designed by YooJung Ahn , is widely considered to be the first car tested publicly without a steering wheel or pedals.

Waymo, the company spun out of Google’s self-driving project, retired the Firefly in 2017. But in a recent podcast interview , Waymo CEO John Krafcik voiced curiosity that no one has replicated the feat since. “Why do you think no one has done that yet?” Krafcik said on the Autonocast . “Because we all sort of scratch our heads and say, ‘Is there not the capability there? Or folks have the capability but they’ve chosen not to do it or not to show it?’”

Cruise hasn’t been as forthcoming with its technology as Waymo. The company has only hosted one demo ride for journalists in 2017, which produced embarrassing headlines such as Reuters ’ “Taco truck halts GM autonomous car’s cruise through city streets.” 

There have been other bumps in the road as well. Cruise’s plan to test its vehicles in New York City — arguably the most difficult driving environment in the US — went nowhere . In July 2019, the company announced that it would miss its goal of launching a large-scale self-driving taxi service by the end of the year . It tried to sugarcoat the disappointing news by announcing a plan to dramatically increase the number of its test vehicles on the road in San Francisco. 

Coming right on the heels of the Consumer Electronics Show and its cavalcade of concept cars and design projects , there’s a sense that Cruise is trying to beat back diminishing expectations. The past year has been a pretty bad one for believers in the technology: missed deadlines, rising concerns over safety, and the growing belief that making autonomous vehicles will be harder, slower, and more expensive than previously thought. 

Cruise is trying to recapture some of that early magic with this vehicle. But it’s also attempting to be more pragmatic and attuned to the realities of growing and scaling a real business. 

Of course, bureaucracy and politics could drive the whole thing right off the road. 

Remember the unsettling lack of steering wheel, break pedals, and so on? That means the Cruise’s not-car will require an exemption from the federal government’s motor vehicle safety standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration only grants 2,500 petitions a year. GM submitted a petition for permission to deploy a fully driverless Chevy Bolt in 2018, but it has yet to receive a response. And it will most likely need another exemption before the Origin is allowed to hit the road, too.  

Safety advocates are urging NHTSA to take its time in deliberating these changes. For example, the Center for Auto Safety “strongly question[s]” the NHTSA’s decision to prioritize these rule changes considering self-driving cars are still in their “infancy and quite likely decades away from widespread practical utility.” And the National Automobile Dealers Association, meanwhile, takes issue with the use of the term “barriers” to describe current safety standards and argues that self-driving cars should continue “to allow also for human control.”

Remember the unsettling lack of steering wheel, break pedals, and so on?

GM isn’t the only company seeking to fast-track these changes. Ford has said it will build an autonomous car without a steering wheel or pedals by 2021, while Waymo has begun offering a limited number of rides in fully driverless minivans to its customers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Cruise is clearly feeling the heat from its competitors, especially when you consider that it has yet to take the important step of launching a commercial business. The company has a beta ride-hailing service, but it’s only available to employees, and Cruise won’t say when it will be available to the broader public. The company also won’t say when the Origin will roll out, but promises to share more information about its production plans in the future. (It’s already been burned once when it missed its 2019 robo-taxi deadline, so it seems the company wants to be careful that doesn’t happen again.)  

I have so many more questions — about the sensor suite, the business model, the testing (if any) that Cruise has conducted — but I’m informed that our time is done. The event is being managed by a unionized workforce, and any additional time could cost Cruise an additional $12,000. I thank Vogt for his time and jokingly ask if there’s an “abort” button in the vehicle. 

“I think it’s been pushed,” he says, grinning. “You just go straight through the ceiling.”

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Cruise and GM team up with Microsoft to commercialize self-driving vehicles

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SAN FRANCISCO, DETROIT and REDMOND, Wash. – Jan. 19, 2021 – Cruise and General Motors on Tuesday announced they have entered a long-term strategic relationship with Microsoft to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving vehicles. The companies will bring together their software and hardware engineering excellence, cloud computing capabilities, manufacturing know-how and partner ecosystem to transform transportation to create a safer, cleaner, and more accessible world for everyone.

“Our mission to bring safer, better, and more affordable transportation to everyone isn’t just a tech race – it’s also a trust race,” said Cruise CEO Dan Ammann. “Microsoft, as the gold standard in the trustworthy democratization of technology, will be a force multiplier for us as we commercialize our fleet of self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles.”

To unlock the potential of cloud computing for self-driving vehicles, Cruise will leverage Azure, Microsoft’s cloud and edge computing platform, to commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale. Microsoft, as Cruise’s preferred cloud provider, will also tap into Cruise’s deep industry expertise to enhance its customer-driven product innovation and serve transportation companies across the globe through continued investment in Azure.

Microsoft will join General Motors, Honda and institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of more than $2 billion in Cruise, bringing the post-money valuation of Cruise to $30 billion.

“Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream.”

“Microsoft is a great addition to the team as we drive toward a future world of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “Microsoft will help us accelerate the commercialization of Cruise’s all-electric, self-driving vehicles and help GM realize even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and create new businesses and services to drive growth.”

In addition, GM will work with Microsoft as its preferred public cloud provider to accelerate its digitization initiatives, including collaboration, storage, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. GM will explore opportunities with Microsoft to streamline operations across digital supply chains, foster productivity and bring new mobility services to customers faster.

About Cruise:

Founded and headquartered in San Francisco, Cruise’s goal is to drive change by building the world’s most advanced self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles that safely connect people to the places, things, and experiences they care about. Join our mission at getcruise.com .

Media Requests: Ray Wert, Cruise Communications, [email protected] , 517-881-7508

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is a global company focused on advancing an all-electric future that is inclusive and accessible to all. At the heart of this strategy is the Ultium battery platform, which powers everything from mass-market to high-performance vehicles. General Motors, its subsidiaries and its joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Baojun and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries can be found at  https://www.gm.com .

Media Requests: Jim Cain, GM Communications, [email protected] , 313-407-2843

About Microsoft:

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only: Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, 425-638-7777, [email protected]

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America Is About to See Way More Driverless Cars

Robotaxis are now picking up riders in L.A. and Houston—and facing a whole new set of challenges.

The future of driverless cars in America is a promotional booth with a surfboard and a movie director’s clapboard. Robotaxis have officially arrived in Los Angeles, and last week, residents lined up in Santa Monica’s main promenade to get a smartphone code needed to ride in them. For now, the cars, from the Alphabet-owned start-up Waymo, won’t leave the tame streets of Santa Monica. But in the coming months, they’ll embark on a multi-month “tour” of the city, heading to West Hollywood, downtown L.A., and several other neighborhoods.

For the past decade, the two leading robotaxi companies, Waymo and Cruise, have been focused primarily on San Francisco and Phoenix, where they both already take paid passengers. But now they are expanding into new cities, adding millions more potential riders (and bystanders) into the mix. Last week, Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, launched its robotaxi service in Houston , and will also soon do the same in Dallas. In addition to L.A., where Cruise is testing and reportedly will soon expand , Waymo is kicking off in Austin, where Cruise already takes passengers.

In San Francisco in particular, the cars have jammed up in ways both silly and serious. Local protesters, fed up with the technology, have put cones on top of the cars to confuse their navigation system . But now the vehicles will face new challenges: As they move beyond their hometowns, their systems will be tested on new kinds of streets, with different driving cultures and different rules. They’ll have to drive in notorious L.A. traffic and notorious Houston traffic . Robotaxis haven’t had it easy in San Francisco, but the race to go national might still be bumpy.

If self-driving cars can handle San Francisco, they should ideally be able to handle anywhere. The city is “by far the toughest environment anywhere in the world to test such technology due to topography and complex street geometries,” Rahul Jain, a professor at the University of Southern California and the director of its Center for Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence, told me over email. Cruise says it chose to start there in part because of these challenges, which the company argues makes it a good place to build this technology. In San Francisco, I’ve ridden in cars made by each company , and in both instances, the cars navigated the streets with impressive ease. L.A. should be easier, but it poses new challenges in terms of traffic and driver aggression. Having lived and driven in both cities, I can confirm that L.A. drivers have more of a knack for speeding and changing lanes in tight highway traffic. “You have to be a little bit wild to be able to drive here,” Jain joked.

In L.A., Waymo cars won’t go on the highway, but the rollout still will not be easy. Both companies test their cars for many hours before passengers can start riding, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be perfect when the vehicles go fully operational; after all, they were likewise tested in San Francisco for many years . Both Waymo and Cruise may soon learn the ways that their computer-vision systems are and aren’t generalizable between cities, says Missy Cummings, the director of George Mason University’s Autonomy and Robotics Center: “They may have to retrain a bunch of their neural nets.”

As each other’s biggest competitor, both Cruise and Waymo appear eager to expand and signal that they are one step closer to robotaxi supremacy. I asked Cummings whether she thought these two companies should be taking passengers in Los Angeles. For Cruise, she offered a blunt no. She was softer when it came to Waymo: “I think it makes sense for them.” Cruise in particular has had a rough past few months in San Francisco—a Cruise car drove into wet cement , another collided with a fire truck, and a pedestrian was pinned under a vehicle earlier this month after it was initially hit by a human-driven car. (Cruise tweeted its account of the crash: Their vehicle “braked aggressively to minimize the impact,” and “at the request of the police the AV was kept in place.”) In August, Cruise was asked by California’s DMV to halve its operations in the city .

“Everything I see indicates Cruise has more issues with road safety, but it’s difficult to be sure, because the companies are so opaque with their data,” Phil Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in autonomous-vehicle safety, told me. Cruise and Waymo are required to make some numbers public to regulators, reporting any accidents and, in California, disclosing th e number of miles drive n and any incidents in which a human had to intervene . The companies also release various safety research on their respective websites . But gaps remain: Researchers don’t have precise information about how many robotaxis are operating and where, for example. Nor do they have video footage of every crash.

A spokesperson for Cruise defended its safety record via email, pointing to the company’s own research indicating that its driverless cars are involved in 65 percent fewer collisions than human drivers are in a comparable driving environment. “Cruise drove 10x more miles than any other autonomous vehicle company in San Francisco last year,” the spokesperson added.

What that means is that we’ll likely see more of these kinds of incidents as the robotaxis, and Cruise in particular, spread beyond San Francisco. The most troubling prospect is that a new era in which self-driving cars are operating in even more cities may bring issues experts can’t predict. Noah Goodall, a senior research scientist at the Virginia Transportation Research Council, told me he was surprised that the vehicles have issues navigating emergency services. But that’s par for the course when you’re building something new. “When you’re creating a technology that’s safer, you’ll create other risks that are new that you didn’t have before,” he explained.

None of this is stopping Cruise or Waymo from slowing down. The two companies are in an arms race to advance their self-driving cars, a competition that is also between two industries . Waymo, which began as Google’s self-driving car project and is owned by Alphabet, is as Silicon Valley as start-ups come. Cruise, meanwhile, is owned by General Motors, a legacy automaker that hasn’t historically been anything like a tech company and is far less cash-flush.

Now driverless cars and their promise to reduce America’s road deaths are collapsing some of the differences between car companies and tech companies. “What Silicon Valley learned is the car business is a very, very sophisticated business, and it’s not really easy to design, engineer, manufacture, distribute a vehicle with critical safety systems and so many parts in it,” Lawrence Burns, a former GM executive and former adviser to Waymo, told me over email. “What the auto industry learned from this is that there’s extraordinary talent and capability in Silicon Valley for digital technology, software and experience design applied to the future of transportation.”

The robotaxi race is just one front on which Americans are seeing these changes up close. Electric cars are now so software-enabled that they are often described as “smartphones on wheels.” And many new cars for sale, including those from GM, are stocked with self-driving and autopilot features that far exceed what was available even a few years ago. Los Angeles and Houston will bear witness to the next era of robotaxis, to whatever accidents and missteps they will surely make. They already are. Before Cruise even officially launched in Houston, three of its vehicles reportedly stalled at the same intersection , locking up traffic.

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Cruise Stops All Driverless Taxi Operations in the United States

The move comes just two days after California regulators told the company to take its autonomously driven cars off the road.

By Yiwen Lu

Reporting from San Francisco.

Cruise said on Thursday evening that it would pause all driverless operations in the United States, two days after California regulators told the General Motors subsidiary to take its autonomous cars off the state’s roads.

The decision affects Cruise’s robot taxi services in Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, where a limited number of public riders could hail paid rides. Noncommercial operations in Dallas, Houston and Miami were also paused.

Cruise did not say how long the halt will last. Testing of driverless vehicles with a safety driver behind the wheel will continue, the company said.

In a post on X , formerly known as Twitter, Cruise said that it had made the decision to “examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust.”

The decision to stop all driverless operations is a major setback for Cruise, which was expanding from limited services in San Francisco and Phoenix. The company also had plans to test its driverless vehicles in Nashville and Seattle.

On Tuesday, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s license to test and operate the company’s driverless fleet in the state, citing an Oct. 2 incident in which a Cruise vehicle dragged a San Francisco pedestrian for 20 feet after a collision.

In an initial meeting with Cruise after the October crash, the D.M.V. said, the company showed footage from the car’s cameras that ended with the driverless vehicle coming to a complete stop after hitting the pedestrian, who was first hit by another car.

D.M.V. officials later learned through “discussion with another government agency” that the pedestrian had also been dragged, according to a suspension order sent to Cruise.

In a statement, Cruise said it had shown the agency “the complete video multiple times.”

In August, California’s D.M.V. told Cruise to reduce its fleet by half while the agency investigated a string of other incidents involving the company’s driverless cars in San Francisco, including a collision with a fire truck.

The California Public Utilities Commission, which greenlighted an expansion of Cruise robot taxi service in San Francisco in August, also suspended its permit for the service on Tuesday.

Yiwen Lu reports on technology for The New York Times. More about Yiwen Lu

Driverless Cars and the Future of Transportation

Autonomous taxis have arrived in car-obsessed Los Angeles, the nation’s second most populous city. But some Angelenos aren’t ready to go driverless .

Cruise, the embattled self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors,  said that it would eliminate roughly a quarter of its work force , as the company looked to rein in costs after an incident led California regulators to shut down its robot taxi operations.

Tesla, the world’s dominant maker of electric vehicles, recalled more than two million vehicles  to address concerns from U.S. officials about Autopilot , the company’s self-driving software.

An Appetite for Destruction: A wave of lawsuits argue that Tesla’s Autopilot software is dangerously overhyped. What can its blind spots teach us about Elon Musk, the company’s erratic chief executive ?

Along for the Ride: Here’s what New York Times reporters experienced during test rides in driverless cars operated by Tesla , Waymo  and Cruise .

The Future of Transportation?: Driverless cars, once a Silicon Valley fantasy, have become a 24-hour-a-day reality in San Francisco . “The Daily” looked at the unique challenges of coexisting with cars that drive themselves .

Stressing Cities: In San Francisco and Austin, Texas, where passengers can hail autonomous taxis, the vehicles are starting to take a toll on city services , even slowing down emergency response times.

A Fast Rise and Fall: Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, wanted to grow fast. Now, the company faces safety concerns  as it contends with angry regulators, anxious employees and skepticism about the viability of the business .

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Driverless car startup Cruise's no good, terrible year

Cruise rolled out hundreds of its robotaxis in San Francisco this year. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

Cruise rolled out hundreds of its robotaxis in San Francisco this year.

A year ago, the future seemed bright for the driverless car startup Cruise. As 2022 wrapped up, CEO Kyle Vogt took to Twitter to post about the company's autonomous vehicles rolling onto the streets of San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix.

"Folks," he wrote , "we are entering the golden years of AV expansion."

Robotaxis, which give rides to any paying customer with no driver at the wheel, were one of the latest tech products to be fully unleashed to the public this year. Dozens of companies, including Alphabet's Waymo and Amazon's Zoox, have been competing to be king. Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, was one of the fastest growing of those startups.

GM had poured billions into Cruise as the company emphasized scaling up at an unprecedented pace.

"We're on a trajectory that most businesses dream of, which is exponential growth," Vogt said during a July call with investors. He boasted about the size of Cruise's driverless car fleet, adding that "you will see several times this scale within the next six months."

By August, California had given Cruise permission to run around 300 robotaxis throughout San Francisco. (Waymo deploys around 100). And the company had started testing in several more cities across the country, including Dallas, Miami, Nashville and Charlotte.

But then, in October, things took a disastrous turn.

California orders Cruise driverless cars off the roads because of safety concerns

On the night of October 2, one of Cruise's driverless cars struck a pedestrian in San Francisco leaving her critically injured and fighting for her life. Her identity has not been released.

A cascade of events followed that ended with Vogt resigning and GM announcing it was pulling hundreds of millions in funding. Cruise is now facing government investigations , fines that could total millions and an uncertain future.

"They were the bull in a china shop. They just kept charging ahead," says Missy Cummings, a George Mason University professor who runs the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center. "When we sat around and discussed who was going to have the worst accident in that crowd, everyone knew it was going to be Cruise."

Tension was building

Even before the October incident, tension over self-driving cars was simmering in San Francisco.

Both Cruise and Waymo say their driverless cars are safer than human drivers – they don't get drunk, text or fall asleep at the wheel. The companies say they've driven millions of driverless miles without any human fatalities and the roads are safer with their autonomous systems in charge.

But, as robotaxis became increasingly ubiquitous throughout San Francisco, residents complained about near collisions and blunders. Local reports showed footage of confused vehicles clogging a residential cul-de-sac , driving into wet cement at a construction site and regularly running red lights .

Armed with traffic cones, protesters are immobilizing driverless cars

An activist group called Safe Street Rebel has been cataloging the incidents , which now clock in at more than 500. The group figured out that if they put orange traffic cones on the hoods of driverless cars , they would render the vehicles immobile. So, they started going out at night to "cone" as many cars as possible as a form of protest.

"When you start having passive aggressive protests like people putting orange cones on your cars, this isn't going to come out your way," says Cummings.

Protesters demonstrate against driverless cars in front of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco in August. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

Protesters demonstrate against driverless cars in front of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco in August.

Cruise and Waymo also ran into problems with San Francisco's police and fire departments . At government hearings, the agencies testified that the driverless cars were a nuisance. They tallied nearly 75 incidents where self-driving cars got in the way of rescue operations , including driving through yellow emergency tape, blocking firehouse driveways, running over fire hoses and refusing to move for first responders.

"Our folks cannot be paying attention to an autonomous vehicle when we've got ladders to throw," San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson said in an August hearing.

California allows robo-taxis to expand and emergency responders aren't happy

Despite public angst over autonomous vehicles, California state regulators voted to allow the companies to expand their robotaxi services in August. That prompted the city of San Francisco to file motions with the state demanding a halt to the expansion.

Seven days after the vote, a Cruise car collided with a fire truck, injuring a passenger.

A pedestrian incident and an alleged cover-up

After the fire truck collision, the California Department of Motor Vehicles told Cruise to reduce its fleet in half, to 150 cars, while it investigated the incident.

Then, just weeks later, the Cruise car hit the pedestrian. Based on police reports and initial video footage from Cruise, the woman was first struck by a hit-and-run human driver whose vehicle threw her into the path of the driverless car.

Cruise said its car "braked aggressively to minimize the impact." It provided some news outlets with video of the incident, which ended right after the driverless car hit the woman . Cruise also gave footage to the DMV.

Over the next few weeks, Cruise continued to expand – launching driverless robotaxi rides in Houston . Then, in a surprise announcement at the end of October, the DMV ordered Cruise to immediately stop all operations in California.

The DMV says Cruise withheld footage from the night of the incident.

The facts stated in the DMV's order of suspension for Cruise. California Department of Motor Vehicles hide caption

The new video footage showed the Cruise car striking the pedestrian, running her over, and then dragging her an additional 20 feet at 7 miles per hour as it pulls to the curb and stops on top of her.

Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon associate professor and autonomous vehicle safety expert, says most human drivers wouldn't respond this way. "Before you move your car, you're going to find out where the pedestrian is," Koopman says. "The last thing you want to do is be driving over them, but that's exactly what the Cruise vehicle did."

Cruise says it gave regulators the entire video immediately after the incident. But the DMV says it was only after requesting the footage that Cruise handed it over – 10 days later.

It quickly snowballed for Cruise after that. The company recalled and grounded all of its cars nationwide – nearly 1,000 vehicles. It initiated a third-party safety review of its robotaxis and hired an outside law firm to examine its response to the pedestrian incident. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also opened an investigation into Cruise .

Meanwhile, The Intercept reported that Cruise cars had difficulty detecting children , according to internal documents. And The New York Times reported that remote human workers had to intervene to control Cruise's driverless vehicles every 2.5 to five miles.

By mid-November, Vogt was gone. Nearly a dozen other executives stepped down and Cruise announced it was laying off nearly a quarter of its staff.

Ripple effect across the industry

Cruise will continue its work on driverless cars as a commercial product, says spokesperson Navideh Forghani. She added that the company's approach is "with safety as our north star." GM's spokesperson says it remains committed to Cruise "as they refocus on trust, accountability and transparency."

Waymo has avoided much of the public ire that built up over the summer. Its spokesperson told NPR that "safety is our mission and top priority" and that "we treat every event seriously by investigating it to understand what happened."

But Cruise's controversy still affects the self-driving industry overall, says Carnegie Mellon's Koopman.

"The whole industry, with one voice, has been promoting the same talking points as Cruise," Koopman says. "So, if one of them is discredited, it discredits the entire industry because they're all using the same playbook."

A lot of that is the claim of driverless cars being superhuman when it comes to safety, he says.

Both Cruise and Waymo have released studies saying their vehicles are involved in fewer crashes than human drivers. One Waymo study says it has an 85% reduction in injury-causing collisions and a Cruise study says it has a 74% reduction . Neither company has released the raw data of these reports.

Koopman says the safety narrative can unravel when people see the driverless cars on city streets making the same mistakes as human drivers. He says he'd like to see the companies focus on making sure the technology is actually safe.

"To be clear, human drivers will text, they'll be distracted. There's the saying, 'the lights are on, but nobody's home,'" Koopman says. "But it turns out, that happens to robotaxis too."

• human drivers
• self driving
• driverless cars
• San Francisco

GM reports 1st quarter earnings increased on retail sales of trucks, improved EV sales.

General Motors on Tuesday reported improved first-quarter earnings on strong retail sales of gasoline-powered pickups and SUVs; lower raw material costs and improved production of battery cell modules, which helped it increase deliveries of its new electric vehicles.

The momentum in the quarter was so positive that GM is raising its estimated total year profit guidance.

GM reported an adjusted pretax profit of $3.9 billion in the first quarter, a slim 1.8% increase compared with the year-ago period at $3.8 billion. Its revenue soared nearly 8% to $43 billion, beating Wall Street expectations.

The automaker said it delivered the gains on stronger retail sales of its trucks, a 36% improvement in delivering its new EVs, led by the Cadillac Lyriq, as well as keeping incentives low and pricing steady. CFO Paul Jacobson told reporters Monday evening that GM also logged $300 million in cost savings in the quarter, primarily in marketing and engineering spending. The company is on track to hit its total cost savings target of $2 billion by year-end. He said GM remains on track to achieve profits from its EV sales by the end of the year. GM plans to build 200,000 to 300,000 EVs for the year.

But GM continues to face pressure with a shrinking market share in China and higher labor costs from last fall's new 4½-year contract with the UAW. Still, in a letter to shareholders, GM CEO Mary Barra wrote that GM anticipates a strong year ahead.

"In January, we outlined clear priorities for GM in 2024," Barra wrote. "They are to leverage the strength of our winning ICE (internal combustion engine) portfolio, grow our EV business profitably, advance our software-defined vehicle capability, and relaunch Cruise safely while delivering strong margins and cash flows. I’m very pleased to share that the team is executing well and making progress across the board."

Barra told analysts Tuesday that GM's estimated range for total capital spending this year across its entire business, including EVs and gasoline vehicles investments, is $10.5 billion to $11.5 billion. That's about the same as last year.

What's happening at Cruise?

GM's self-driving subsidiary, Cruise, has a team "back on the road in Phoenix updating mapping andgathering more road information," Barra wrote. GM had to halt Cruise operations nationally last year after a self-driving vehicle hit a pedestrian in San Francisco, leaving her critically injured. As the Free Press has reported , GM has invested about $8 billion in Cruise since 2016. Cruise leaders had at one point promised to deliver $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025, but the subsidiary has not made any money yet.

Jacobson said the company expects to spend $1.7 billion on Cruise operations this year, down slightly from GM’s spend on Cruise in previous years of around $2 billion.

GM's new outlook for 2024

Jacobson said, “This strong start, our operating discipline, the commitment of our team and the new products we’re launching are giving us the confidence to raise" guidance. GM's new full-year adjusted pretax profit guidance is in the range of $12.5 billion to $14.5 billion, up from $12 billion to $14 billion. It raised its net income guidance to a range of $10.1 billion to $11.5 billion, up from $9.8 billion to $11.2 billion.

GM's new products launching this year include the Chevrolet Blazer EV, Chevy Equinox EV, Chevy Silverado EV RST, GMC Sierra EV, Cadillac Escalade IQ and Cadillac Celestiq. Also, the new Chevrolet Traverse and gas engine Equinox SUVs also.

Asked whether GM may delay the launch of other EVs, including a yet-to-be named Buick EV, Jacobson said, "We have a number of launches this year that we need to focus on making sure that we get right. So we'll be markedly more deliberate in how we're rolling vehicles out to make sure we can get them out with the quality our customers can expect. As we continue to ramp up module production, we're going to pace ourselves with the customer."

He added that the retail demand for EVs “is holding” strong.

In a Tuesday morning call with analysts, Barra said that based on dealer feedback and consumer interest, “We’re confident that continuing to scale EV production is the right move.”

Barra said GM’s spending was above historic levels for many years to get EVs designed and built, but now that the launches are happening, GM can return to “capital efficiency” and lower costs.

She said the Chevrolet Bolt, which GM stopped building in December, will be an example of how GM can deliver a redesigned EV at an efficient cost when GM puts its Ultium technology in it. GM will relaunch the Bolt with the Ultium powertrain in late 2025.

First-quarter highlights

GM reported global revenue rose 7.6% to $43 billion compared with $39.9 billion last year, topping Wall Street expectations. According to Seeking Alpha, Wall Street analysts expected GM revenue to rise 4.5% to $41.78 billion during the quarter.

GM's reported net income soared 24% to $3 billion compared with $2.4 billion a year ago. Its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) inched up 1.8% to $3.9 billion compared with $3.8 billion a year ago.

In China, GM's second most important market, GM and its joint ventures recorded a $106 million loss for the quarter in equity income compared with an $83 million gain in the year-ago quarter. GM's market share declines in China started years ago and have proliferated with rising economic and political tensions between China and the United States as well as complicated consumer sentiment regarding EVs and growing competition from government-backed Chinese carmakers.

GM said in the fourth quarter that it would have a rough first quarter in China. Jacobson said the $106 million loss is "actually slightly better than we were thinking. The team has really worked through significant inventory build that happened in the back end of 2023. With that largely behind us, things should normalize a little bit and turn back to profit."

GM Financial, GM's captive lender, recorded an adjusted earnings before taxes of $737 million, down 4.4% from a year ago when it had an exceptionally strong period, GM spokesman David Caldwell said.

GM new vehicle pricing

GM reported a 6% gain in retail sales of its new vehicles, but its fleet sales plummeted 23% in the quarter in part due to the temporary production constraints of midsize pickups and cargo vans, which GM said are now fixed. In February, as the Free Press was first to report, GM had to  halt sales of its 2024  midsize pickups to fix software problems, but it resumed sales  within 24 hours.

GM's pricing on its vehicles is holding up. Caldwell said as of midmonth, GM's average transaction price was about $49,500, consistent with the same period last year. Jacobson said GM ended the quarter with dealers having an average of about 63 days of inventory, which he said is a good level for going into the spring. A healthy inventory is about a 60-day supply.

Earlier this month GM reported its total first-quarter U.S. sales dropped 1.5% to 594,233 vehicles sold compared with the year-ago quarter.

What the analysts say

Daniel Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, said after difficulties with launching its newer EVs, stop-sales and parts shortages in recent years, this was the quarter for GM to turn things around.

"This was a major flex-the-muscles quarter for GM and shows the turnaround is now happening in Detroit after a rocky few years," Ives told the Free Press in an email. "Solid numbers across the board with a guidance raise is music to the ear for the GM bulls."

Morningstar auto analyst David Whiston told the Free Press ahead of GM's results that it would come down to whether GM's higher sales volumes and lower materials costs could offset slightly lower pricing. He said the results indicate the automaker had "a great quarter with ... more good results coming later this year. Guidance increase shows continued strong confidence in 2024’s performance. China is a sore spot but volumes may improve there after Q1."

GM appears to be disciplined in its production planning and marketing spending, said Erin Keating, executive editor at Cox Automotive. In an email to the Free Press, Keating also said GM has been, "thoughtful in which products they are bringing to market in order to have a balance for what the customers are looking for, this will pay off for them if they can remain focused. If the market starts to soften, I do think we’ll see them (and everyone else) need to pull more levers to bring affordability in line."

Some management shake-ups lead to bullish outlook

GM did some housekeeping in the quarter. It had to resolve the stop-sale of theo Blazer EV  it had ordered on Dec. 22 as engineers worked to fix owner-reported software problems. On March 8, GM lifted the sale when it found a fix.

Then there was a management shake-up when GM announced its Executive Vice President of Global of Manufacturing and Sustainability Gerald Johnson, 61, is retiring after 44 years with GM. The company is bringing in a former Tesla executive, Jens Peter (JP) Clausen, 52, to replace Johnson. Also, GM's relatively new Chief Digital Office Edward Kummer left , citing health issues. Donald Chesnut, vice president of customer experience, elected to leave GM, too.

Still, Jacobson told reporters that going forward, GM is bullish noting, "Our consumer has been remarkably resilient in this period of higher interest rates and we've seen that in all our transaction prices and our strong go-to-market strategies. We think in this environment we can continue to perform."

More: GM Energy now selling products to allow people to power their home with a GM EV

More: GM reports Q1 pretax profit decline of 6%, but raises yearly guidance

Contact Jamie L. LaReau:  [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter  @ jlareauan . Read more on  General Motors  and sign up for our  autos newsletter .  Become a subscriber .

• What's My Car Worth?
• Buyer's Guide

The 25 Bestselling Cars, Trucks, and SUVs of 2024 (So Far)

After years of turmoil, new-car sales are settling back into normalcy, and some new models snuck onto the list of bestsellers through the first quarter of 2024.

Chevrolet Trax: 37,588 units sold

The new entry-level Trax SUV, which won a 10Best award for 2024, is proving that an attractive base price can go a long way. Starting at under $22,000, the new-for-2024 Trax is now one of the bestselling Chevys, and sales are far outpacing its predecessor.

Honda HR-V: 38,062 units sold

Many subcompact crossovers posted big increases at the start of the year, and the HR-V was the bestselling model in this segment. Sales were up 44 percent through the first quarter, but it still has a long way to go to catch the compact CR-V found higher on this list.

Jeep Wrangler: 38,308 units sold

A refresh for 2024 that brought a new grille and new features inside hasn't changed the Wrangler's fate much. Through the first quarter, sales were only up 1 percent compared with last year.

Subaru Crosstrek: 38,405 units sold

The Crosstrek was the bestselling Subaru at one point, but it's back to the #2 spot thanks to a strong first quarter from the larger Forester found higher on this list. Sales declined 8 percent through the first quarter.

Ford Maverick: 39,061 units sold

The Maverick finds its way onto this list for the first time, but we can't say we didn't see its popularity coming. This affordable compact pickup truck offers either a hybrid powertrain and a powerful 2.0-liter engine, and it combines a crossover-like driving experience with the practicality of a pickup bed. Sales were up 82 percent over last year.

Ford Transit: 39,890 units sold

Big vans like the Transit are work vehicles, and these useful tools are popular for good reason. Sales of this full-size van were up 25 percent compared with this time last year. This also includes 2891 sales of the electric E-Transit model .

Nissan Sentra: 40,081 units sold

While the mid-size Altima didn't even make it onto this list, the compact Sentra gained big. Its sales were up 78 percent through the first quarter, making it the second bestselling Nissan.

Honda Accord: 41,927 units sold

It's no secret we love the Accord: it's won 10Best more than any other vehicle, and it got first place in our recent mid-size sedan comparison test. But still, sales declined 2 percent through the first quarter.

Tesla Model 3: 42,000 units sold (estimated)

Tesla is struggling to sell cars, as it built more cars than it sold in the first quarter. The Model 3 is thus lower on this list than it was last year, although the company says it is still ramping up production of the updated model . As always, our Tesla sales numbers come from Automotive News estimates.

Hyundai Tucson: 45,509 units sold

The Tucson compact SUV continues to be the bestselling Hyundai, although sales were down 1 percent compared with this time last year. An updated model for 2025 (pictured here) could help turn that around.

Subaru Forester: 48,546 units sold

Although there's a new 2025 Forester just around the corner, sales of the outgoing model grew by 60 percent in the first quarter. The outgoing generation will live on in Wilderness trim (pictured) for the time being even as the new model starts to arrive at dealerships.

Chevrolet Equinox: 54,185 units sold

The Equinox continues to sell in big numbers despite being at the end of its current generation, with sales up 2 percent over last year. The new 2025 Equinox is set to arrive later this year with a new look inside and out, and there's an Equinox EV on the way, too.

Jeep Grand Cherokee: 54,455 units sold

The Grand Cherokee mid-size SUV continues to outsell its stablemates in the Jeep lineup, and it's Stellantis' second bestselling vehicle after the Ram pickup. Sales were flat through the first quarter.

Ford Explorer: 58,465 units sold

The Explorer is the bestselling three-row SUV in the country, and sales were flat compared with last year. An updated 2025 model (pictured) is coming later this year.

Toyota Corolla: 60,071 units sold

Sales of the Corolla compact car grew by a whopping 40 percent through the first quarter, but it wasn't enough to catch its close rival, the Honda Civic. We'll continue to watch this rivalry throughout the year to see who comes out on top.

Honda Civic: 61,929 units sold

The Civic was up by 36 percent, which made it the bestselling compact car in the country and was even enough to earn it a place in the top 10 bestsellers. A Civic Hybrid is set to join the lineup for the 2025 model year.

GMC Sierra: 68,597 units sold

While sales of its Chevy Silverado sibling and other full-size pickups were down, the Sierra lineup gained 2 percent compared with last year. This includes both the light-duty Sierra 1500 and the heavy-duty 2500 and 3500 models.

Toyota Camry: 78,337 units sold

The Camry's top spot among passenger cars (vehicles that aren't SUVs or pickup trucks) is as sure as the tides. Sales were up 19 percent through the first quarter, and that's of the old model, as the new hybrid-only 2025 Camry (pictured) hasn't gone on sale yet.

Ram Pickup: 89,417 units sold

The Ram is struggling so far this year, with sales down 15 percent compared with this time last year. Perhaps the arrival of the refreshed 2025 model, along with the Ramcharger plug-in-hybrid and electric Ram REV will help.

Nissan Rogue: 90,804

Rogue sales are strong so far this year, posting a 19 percent increase over last year. A styling update for 2024 that also brought some new features might have something to do with this.

Despite being raised on a steady diet of base-model Hondas and Toyotas—or perhaps because of it—Joey Capparella nonetheless cultivated an obsession for the automotive industry throughout his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee. He found a way to write about cars for the school newspaper during his college years at Rice University, which eventually led him to move to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for his first professional auto-writing gig at Automobile Magazine . He has been part of the Car and Driver team since 2016 and now lives in New York City.  

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8 New Cruise Ships Launching in 2024 That You Need to Know About

E veryone loves the thrill of sailing on a brand new cruise ship. If you’re wondering what new cruise ship options you’ll have in 2024, there are eight ships set to launch. One of them, the Sun Princess from Princess Cruise Line, has already made its debut.

Sun Princess

• Launched February 2024

Princess Cruise just launched its biggest ship, the Sun Princess, with a 4300-passenger capacity. This new ship is designed to be more family-friendly, with the aim of attracting younger cruise-goers. On the top deck, they’ve introduced a hang-gliding ride, the first of its kind on a cruise ship. Additionally, there’s a ropes course, a splash zone, a wider range of restaurants, a high-tech theater, and a glass-covered dome entertainment venue.

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• Launching June 2024

Cunard’s latest addition to its fleet is the Queen Anne, the company’s first new ship in over a decade. This 2794-passenger cruise liner will embark on its maiden voyage in Europe, with sailings in the Mediterranean and Scandinavia. The ship’s design is a modern take on the classic “golden age” of cruising, featuring new restaurants and a two-deck Royal Court theater. Check the prices for Cunard cruises .

Utopia of the Seas

• Launching in July 2024

Royal Caribbean is introducing another massive cruise ship, Utopia of the Seas, which will soon become the second largest cruise ship worldwide, surpassed only by Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas. Utopia of the Seas is an impressive ship, with a passenger capacity of 6,700, a total weight of 237,000 tons, and 2,830 cabins. 

It is part of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class of ships featuring an impressive array of amenities, such as an indoor ice skating rink, a zip line, a FlowRider surf simulator, a rock climbing wall, a water park, a 259 ft Ultimate Abyss waterslide, an aqua theater, and neighborhoods filled with shops, restaurants, and bars. Cruise passengers will be entertained with Broadway-caliber shows.

Utopia of the Seas will sail on short getaway itineraries from Port Canaveral (Orland), offering 3-night weekend and 4-night weekday itineraries to the Bahamas and Royal Caribbean’s private island, Perfect Day at CocoCay. Check the prices for Royal Caribbean cruises .

Disney Treasure

• Launching December 2024

Disney Treasure, the latest addition to the Disney Cruise Line, will launch in December this year, marking a significant milestone after a decade since the launch of the last Disney cruise ship. The ship has 1256 cabins and suites, each designed with a theme inspired by Disney movies like Aladdin, The Lion King, and Pocahontas. 

Passengers on the cruise are in for a treat, with exciting Broadway-style musicals and the Aqua Mouse, a thrilling Disney water ride. The themed restaurants on board are another highlight, featuring a Marvel-themed restaurant and a Mexican restaurant inspired by the movie Coco. And if that wasn’t enough, the ship also features a new Haunted Mansion-themed bar, resembling a classic ocean liner’s haunted drawing room, serving ghostly cocktails.

• Launching August 2024

Silversea Cruises is preparing to launch its newest ship, the Silver Ray, in the summer of 2024. The Silver Ray is the second Nova Class ship in the Silversea fleet, and it promises to bring ultra-luxury cruising to a new level. With a capacity of 728 passengers, the Silver Ray is a small ship that offers an all-balcony cabin experience, complete with walk-in closets and butler service. 

But that’s not all. The Silver Ray is also an eco-friendly cruise ship, making it the first hybrid, luxury cruise ship to be completely emission-free while in port. It does this by using fuel cells and batteries to power the ship. 

The Silver Ray will begin its maiden voyage season sailing in the Mediterranean, before repositioning to Fort Lauderdale, where it will offer South America cruise itineraries. Check the prices for Silversea cruises .

Brilliant Lady

• Launching TBA 2024 

Virgin Voyages, the popular adults-only cruise line, is launching its newest ship, the “Brilliant Lady,” sometime in 2024. The brand new ship will have a capacity of over 2700 passengers and will be an adults-only cruise—perfect for anyone seeking an indulgent cruising experience. 

Explora II is the latest ship of Explora Journeys, MSC Group’s newest addition to its luxury brand. With a capacity of slightly over 900 passengers, it’s a smaller cruise ship that promises a more personalized experience for its guests. 

Passengers on board the ship will be treated to a range of luxurious amenities that include oversized suites, welcome champagne bottles, an exclusive whiskey and cigar bar with rare whiskeys, an expansive spa, and plenty of bespoke experiences. The ship will sail in the Mediterranean, perfect for passengers looking for a luxurious and intimate cruising experience.

Mein Schiff 7

• Launching Summer 2024

Mein Schiff 7 is the latest addition to TUI Cruises’ fleet and is expected to launch in the summer of 2024. TUI Cruises, a German-based cruise line co-owned by Royal Caribbean, has designed Mein Schiff 7 as a mid-size ship with a passenger capacity of 2896. 

The brand new cruise ship has 12 restaurants and bistros, 17 bars and lounges, and cabins for solo travelers. The ship also features a reinvented casino concept that combines a lounge and casino. The ship will sail in the Baltic and British Isles.

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It’s full steam ahead for the cruise ship industry after Royal Caribbean hiked its full-year profit guidance on Thursday, saying it expects 60% growth from last year following record bookings during the first quarter.

Travelers are paying “record ticket prices,” according to Royal Caribbean — despite a recent spate of high-sea deaths and missing passengers reports, including a Florida 20-year-old who jumped off a Royal Caribbean cruise this month.

Soaring demand for vacations at sea has given cruise operators ample room to raise ticket prices as the industry looks to close the pricing gap between more expensive land-based holidays and give their profits a lift.

Royal Caribbean, which operates the Celebrity Cruises, now expects annual profits of between $10.70 and $10.90 per share, compared with its earlier forecast of $9.90 to $10.10.

“Our existing fleet along with our new ships continue to perform exceptionally well, highlighted by the market response to the launch of Icon of the Seas,” CEO Jason Liberty said.

Royal Caribbean’s shares — which have spiked 126% in the past year, were up 2% on Thursday morning, to $139.32.

“I remember owning the stock in 2022 and every client was giving me grief about it,” said Peter Ahluwalia, manager at Belinvest Global Equity Fund that holds Royal Caribbean stocks and chief investment officer at Swiss Partners Group. “We’re turning almost 45% return on equity at the moment, which is quite incredible.”

Overall, the industry which was among the hardest hit during the pandemic, is expected to grow to 39.4 million passengers in 2027 from 31.7 million last year, according to Statista.

The surge in demand comes amid major publicity blows from incidents at sea involving passengers who have gone missing, including the Florida man who jumped overboard on April 4 in front of his brother and father after a night of drinking.

Last December, a 41-year-old Royal Caribbean passenger went overboard on a cruise to the Bahamas. That followed an incident last August involving a 64 year-old woman sailing from Singapore to Malaysia on Royal Caribbean who is presumed to have jumped to her death .

On average, 19 people go overboard on cruise ships every year — and of those, only about four are rescued, according to a 2020 study commissioned by the industry trade group Cruise Lines International Association.

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Long Island car shows and cruise nights 

Friday nights during the summer months you can find car enthusiasts at the Bellmore Cruise Night, where a plethora of cars or trucks, from muscle, hot rods and the latest super or EVs can be seen. Credit: Newsday/David Trotman-Wilkins

Classic, vintage and collectible cars are on display at weekly cruise nights and special event shows happening now through fall on Long Island. Travel back in time during the 2024 outdoor car show season.

CRUISE NIGHTS

Bellmore friday nights car show.

Bellmore LIRR station, Sunrise Highway and Bedford Avenue, 516-679-1875,  bellmorechamber.com . Open to all makes and models. Co-sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of the Bellmores and the Town of Hempstead.  Fee Free for spectators, $5 for cars Date 5-10 p.m. Fridays through Oct. 25, [email protected].

CRUISIN’ THURSDAYS

 The Milleridge Inn, 585 N. Broadway, Jericho, 516-931-2201,  milleridgeinn.com . Custom car cruise in.  Fee Free. $10 car registration gets you a $10 gift card to be used at the Milleridge Inn. Date  3-8 p.m. Thursdays through Oct. 31.

OYSTER BAY CRUISE NIGHTS

Audrey Avenue, Oyster Bay, 516-259-1842,  visitoysterbay.com . All cars, motorcycles and trucks welcome, giveaways and family-friendly fun zone with activities. Fee $5 per show car. Date  5:30 p.m. Tuesdays May 28 through Sept. 10, weather permitting.

LONG ISLAND CARS “SUPER SWAP SUNDAY”

Long Island Community Hospital Amphitheater at Bald Hill, 1 Ski Run Lane, Farmingville, 631-567-5898, longislandcars.com . Street rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, imports and cars of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s on display. Judged car show, trophies awarded in 50 classes. Parts and accessories for sale, along with cars for sale, fair food and entertainment. Fee $10 ages 12 and older; $25 judging fee for registered cars. Date 8 a.m.-4 p.m. May 26. Judged show cars and vendors register at the gate from 7-10 a.m.

BUICK AND OPEL CAR SHOW

Wantagh LIRR parking lot, Park Avenue, Wantagh, 516-606-4620, libuickclub.org . “Driver Choice” judged car show that's open to Buick and Opel models only. Fee Free for spectators, $20 car registration. Date 8 a.m.-2 p.m. May 26; rain date: June 1. 

ELKS LODGE CAR SHOW

901 Lakeville Rd., New Hyde Park, the Long Island Corvette Owners Association, 516-639-3666, licoa.org . All cars welcome, judged show, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. June 1; rain date: June 8.

Flowerfield Fairgrounds, Route 25A, St. James 631-567-5898, longislandcars.com . Street rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, imports and cars of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s on display. Judged car show, trophies awarded in 50 classes. Parts and accessories for sale, along with cars for sale, fair food and entertainment. Fee $10 ages 12 and older; $25 judging fee for registered cars. Date 8 a.m.-4 p.m. June 2, rain date: June 11. Judged show cars and vendors register at the gate from 7-10 a.m.

CAR SHOW IN BABYLON

Babylon Town Pool, Fire Island Avenue, Babylon, The Cadillac Guys, 516-639-1771. Cadillacs on display along with other makes and models to benefit local animal rescue shelters. Fee Free for spectators, $20 car registration. Date 9 a.m.-2 p.m. June 9.

CAR SHOW IN BAITING HOLLOW

Baiting Hollow Community Church, Sound Avenue, Baiting Hollow, 631-831-3547,  limooseclassiccarclub.com . Entertainment, refreshments available, benefits St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Fee $5 spectators; $20 car registration day of show. Date 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 23; rain date: June 30.

ANTIQUE AND COLLECTIBLE AUTO SHOW

Old Westbury Gardens, 71 Old Westbury Rd., Old Westbury, 516-488-4962, day of show hotline: 516-353-7870, oldwestburygardens.org . The Greater New York Region Antique Automobile Club of America’s annual show, hundreds of cars from various eras. Fee Garden admission includes entry into car show for spectators: $15, $8 ages 7-17, must purchase tickets on website in advance; $20 in advance show cars, $25 day of, both include garden admission.  Date 9 a.m.-3 p.m. June 2; rain date: June 9.

FORD MUSTANG CAR SHOW

4869 Nesconset Hwy., Port Jefferson Station, 631-371-1432, mscli.com . Hosted by the Mustang and Shelby Club of Long Island. Open to all Mustangs, judged show. Fee $25 show cars entry fee, free admission to spectators. Date  9 a.m.-3 p.m. June 9, rain or shine.

POLICE SURGEONS BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION CAR SHOW

St. Anthony’s High School, 275 Wolf Hill Rd., Huntington, 631-368-8617. Open to all show-quality cars. Fee $5 spectators; $15 show cars in advance, $20 day of. Date 9 a.m.-2 p.m. June 30.

CAR SHOW IN HICKSVILLE

Automat Custom & Restoration, 69 Hazel St., Hicksville, 516-938-7373. Customs, classics, antiques, exotics, sports, luxury cars and trucks, no preregistration needed. Fee Free for spectators and show cars . Date 8 a.m.-2 p.m. June 15; rain dates: June 22 and June 29.

FATHER’S DAY CAR SHOW SWAP MEET 

Merrick LIRR station, Hewlett and Merrick avenues, Merrick, 516-937-7800. Nonjudged car show; rides, food and vendors. Fee Free, donations accepted to the Nassau County Correction Officers Benevolent Association Widows and Children's Fund. Car entry: $15 advance, $20 day of. Date 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 16.

LONG ISLAND CARS “SUPER SWAP SUNDAY” CAR SHOW AND SWAP MEET

Long Island Community Hospital Amphitheater at Bald Hill, 1 Ski Run Lane, Farmingville, 631-567-5898, longislandcars.com . Street rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, imports and cars of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s on display. Judged car show, trophies awarded in 50 classes. Parts and accessories for sale, along with cars for sale, fair food and entertainment. Fee $10 ages 12 and older; $25 judging fee for registered cars. Date 8 a.m.-4 p.m. June 23. Judged show cars and vendors register at the gate from 7-10 a.m.

GOLD COAST CRUISERS WATERFRONT CAR SHOW

Morgan Park, Germaine Street and Landing Road, Glen Cove, goldcoastcruisers.org . Open to all show-quality cars, trucks, classics, street rods, muscle cars and antiques. All vehicles must be on the show grounds by noon. Show also features entertainment, raffles and more. Fee $25 show cars. Date 8 a.m.-4 p.m. June 23.

The Maples, 10 Ryerson Ave., Manorville, 631-339-3065, athsli.org . People’s Choice awards spotlight antique and modern trucks, raffles, 50/50, DJ music, all-you-can-eat barbecue ($20), hosted by the American Truck Historical Society, Long Island chapter. Fee $5 for spectators; $10 truck registration. Date 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 23; rain date: Sept. 8.

CAR SHOW IN PORT JEFFERSON

Greek Orthodox Church of the Assumption, 430 Sheep Pasture Rd., Port Jefferson, 516-885-7445, ahepa319.org . Judged car show open to all cars, trucks and motorcycles, music, food vendors, raffles and giveaways, cash prizes for winning cars in first, second and third place. Fee Free for spectators, $20 show car, truck or motorcycle registration in advance and or day of, AHEPA Service Dogs for Warriors and local charities. Date 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 29.

CAR SHOW IN BELLPORT

Bellport Fire Department, Occumbomock Engine Company, 161 S. Country Rd., Bellport, 917-697-4634. In partnership with MVP Automotive and Still Cruisin' L.I. Car Club. All makes and models, awards given to decade, truck class and “Best in Show.” Food trucks, music and 50/50 raffle. Fee $15 advance show cars, $20 day of. Date 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. June 30.

LONG ISLAND ANTIQUE POWER ASSOCIATION SUMMER TRACTOR AND ENGINE SHOW AND PULL

The Long Island Antique Power Association, 5951 Sound Ave., Riverhead, 631-727-7943, liapa.com . Garden and large tractor pulls, truck and engine exhibits and kids corner, train ride, blacksmith shop, antique sawmill and craft and food vendors. Fee $10 ages 12 and older. Date 9 a.m.-5 p.m. July 13-14.

LONG ISLAND THUNDERBIRD CLUB

American Airpower Museum, Republic Airport, 1230 New Highway, Farmingdale, 631-724-3756,  longislandthunderbirds.godaddysites.com . More than 15 cars on display. Fee  $15; $10 ages 5-12. Date  10:30-3 p.m. July 13; rain date: July 20.

ANTIQUE AND CLASSIC CAR SHOW

Sagtikos Manor’s great lawn, 677 W. Montauk Hwy., Bay Shore, 631-682-9114,  sagtikosmanor.org . People’s Choice Award for cars 1950 and older, food vendor and music. Fee $5, $3 ages 5-15, $15 car registration. Date 10 a.m.-3 p.m. July 21; rain date: July 28.

JUDGED CAR SHOW IN BETHPAGE

Bethpage Federal Credit Union, 899 S. Oyster Bay Rd., Bethpage, 516-297-6908, longislandvettes.org . More than 150 cars on display including vintage, collectible and custom cars and trucks. Benefits Last Hope Animal Rescue. Fee Free for spectators, car registration is $30 day of show, $20 in advance, car registration begins at 7 a.m. Date  9 a.m.-4 p.m. July 21; rain date: July 28.

LONG ISLAND CARS SUPER SWAP SUNDAY CAR SHOW AND SWAP MEET

Flowerfield Fairgrounds, Route 25A, St. James, 631-567-5898, longislandcars.com . Street rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, exotics, imports and collectible cars on display. Vendors selling parts and accessories, plus a variety of cars for sale by owners. Fee $10 ages 12 and older; $25 show car judging fee. Date 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 18; rain date: Aug. 25. Judged show cars and vendors register at the gate from 7-10 a.m.

PONTIAC CAR SHOW

Garage Eatery, 170 Bridge Rd., Islandia, 917-208-7864, gtoclubli.com . Pontiac models only including GTO celebrated on its 60th anniversary, food vendors, DJ. Fee Free for spectators, $20 show registration. Date 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Aug. 25.

ALL FORD CHARITY SHOW

Newins Ford, 219 W. Main St., Bay Shore, carshowforcsf.com . Featuring cars from several Mustang, Shelby, Thunderbird clubs, judged show. Trophies, T-shirts, raffle prizes, live music, Fee Free for spectators, $25 car registration. Date 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 7.

CAR SHOW IN CUTCHOGUE

Main Road, Cutchogue, 631-831-3547, limooseclassiccarclub.com . Car show with the Cutchogue Historical Society. Fee $5 spectators; $20 day of car registration. Date 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 14; rain date: Sept. 15.

Long Island Community Hospital Amphitheater at Bald Hill, 631-567-5898, longislandcars.com . Street rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, imports and cars of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s on display. Judged car show, trophies awarded in 50 classes. Parts and accessories for sale, food and entertainment. Fee $10 ages 12 and older; $25 judging fee for registered cars. Date 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 8. Judged show cars and vendors register at the gate from 7-10 a.m.

STUDEBAKER AND ORPHAN CAR SHOW

Centerport Beach, 236 Little Neck Rd., Centerport, 631-834-6785, longisland-sdc.com . Presented by the Studebaker Driver's Club, Long Island chapter. Fee $25 for show cars and free for spectators. Date 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 15.

CLASSIC CAR SHOW IN COVE NECK

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, Cove Neck, 917-428-4499, nps.gov/sahi . Hosted by Long Island Sound Classic Car Club, open to pre-1949 cars. Fee $20 show cars, free for spectators. Date 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 8; rain date: Sept. 15.

COPIAGUE KIWANIS ANNUAL CAR SHOW

Tanner Park, Kerrigan Road, off Montauk Highway, Copiague, 516-647-2754, townofbabylon.com . Live music, judged car show, refreshments. Fee $6 spectators; $20 show cars registration in advance, $25 day of. Date 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 8; rain date: Sept. 22.

VOLKSWAGEN CAR SHOW

Riverhead Bay Motors, 1521 Old Country Rd., Riverhead, 516-761-8950, livc.net . All VW judged show open to all air and water-cooled Volkswagens, food vendor, swap meet, DJ. Fee Free for spectators, $25 car registration, register in advance on the website and you get a club T-shirt. Date 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 15.

LONG ISLAND FALL CLASSIC CAR SHOW

Tobay Beach, Ocean Parkway, Massapequa. Car show, live music by That 70's Band, food drive in cooperation with Island Harvest, 516-797-4121, carshowli.com . Fee Free for spectators; $15 early-bird car preregistration, $25 day of show. Date 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 22; rain date: Sept. 29.

SEASIDE CLASSIC CAR SHOW

Town Park Point Lookout, 1300 Lido Blvd., Point Lookout, 516-812-3303, hempsteadny.gov . Registration 10 a.m.-noon, show runs noon-4 p.m. Fee  Free for spectators; Date Noon-4 p.m. Sept. 29; rain date: Oct. 6.

LONG ISLAND CARS CUSTOM AND COLLECTIBLE CAR SHOW AND SWAP MEET

North Hempstead Beach Park, West Shore Road, Port Washington, 631-567-5898, longislandcars.com . Street rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, exotics, imports and collectibles. Vendors selling parts and accessories, plus cars for sale by owners. Fee $10 ages 12 and older; $25 show car judging fee. Date 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 6. Judged show cars and vendors register at the gate from 7-10 a.m.

THUNDERBIRD AND FORD CAR SHOW

Key Food Shopping Center, 58 Indian Head Rd., Kings Park, 631-724-3756, clubs.hemmings.com/longislandthunderbirds . Thunderbird and all-Ford car show for Building Homes for Heroes; judging, awards. Fee Free for spectators, donations accepted; $20 show cars in advance, $25 day of. Date 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 6; rain date: Oct. 13.

JAGUAR CAR SHOW

Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium, 180 Little Neck Rd., Centerport, 631-854-5579, vanderbiltmuseum.org . Fee $10, $7 ages 12 and younger includes museum and car show admission. Date Noon-4 p.m. Oct. 6; rain date: Oct. 13.

RIVERHEAD MUSTANG & FORD ROUNDUP

Location to be determined, 631-371-1432, mscli.com . Hosted by the Mustang and Shelby Club of Long Island and sponsored by Riverhead Ford. Open to all Mustangs and Ford-powered makes and models, trophies awarded, first 100 registered cars receive a free T-shirt and goody bag. Fee  $20 show cars, free for spectators. Date  9 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 16; rain date: Oct. 23.

Flowerfield Fairgrounds, Route 25A, St. James 631-567-5898, longislandcars.com . Street rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, imports and cars of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s on display. Judged car show, trophies awarded in 50 classes. Parts and accessories for sale, along with cars for sale, fair food and entertainment. Fee $10 ages 12 and younger; $25 judging fee for registered cars. Date 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 20; rain date: Oct. 27. Judged show cars and vendors register at the gate from 7-10 a.m.

PORSCHE CAR SHOW

Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium, 180 Little Neck Rd., Centerport, 631-854-5579, vanderbiltmuseum.org . Fee $10, $7 ages 12 and younger includes museum and car show admission. Date Noon-4 p.m. Oct. 20; rain date: Oct. 27.

FALL CAR SHOW AND SWAP MEET

Old Westbury Gardens, 71 Old Westbury Rd., Old Westbury, 718-847-3507, oldwestburygardens.org . The Greater New York Region Antique Automobile Club of America’s annual show features antique, vintage, special interest, muscle cars, hot rods, truck and motorcycles. Fee Garden admission includes entry into car show for spectators: $15, $8 ages 7-17, must purchase tickets on website in advance; $20 in advance show cars, $25 day of includes garden admission. Date 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 27; rain date: Nov. 3.

LONG ISLAND CARS “BEST CARS ON LONG ISLAND”

Catholic Health Amphitheater at Bald Hill, Farmingville; 631-567-5898, longislandcars.com . Street rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, imports and cars of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s will be on display. Hundreds of vendors will be available selling all kinds of parts and accessories necessary for the auto collector, plus a wide variety of cars will be for sale by owner. Show cars are judged with trophies awarded in over 50 classes. Live entertainment and fair food. Fee  $10 ages 12 and older; $25 show car judging fee, register at the gate 7-10 a.m. Date  8 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 3; rain date: Nov. 10. 

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Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by David Dolan and Christopher Cushing

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Daniel Leussink is a correspondent in Japan. Most recently, he has been covering Japan’s automotive industry, chronicling how some of the world's biggest automakers navigate a transition to electric vehicles and unprecedented supply chain disruptions. Since joining Reuters in 2018, Leussink has also covered Japan’s economy, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, COVID-19 and the Bank of Japan’s ultra-easy monetary policy experiment.

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