In January 2020, at the event where General Motors automated driving division Cruise took the wraps off the Origin robotaxi, a slide briefly appeared in the presentation showing a version of the vehicle for package deliveries. Today during the General Motors investor day, Cruise CEO Dan Ammann provided more details about the company’s business model and revenue opportunities and showed both a delivery module and a wheelchair accessible version.
Cruise has been providing automated deliveries in partnership with Walmart WMT +0.7% in the Phoenix area since late 2020. Throughout much of last year during the worst early phases of the pandemic in the San Francisco area, Cruise vehicles were used to provide more than 50,000 food deliveries to medical personnel and those in need. Those efforts have all utilized the current test fleet of Chevrolet Bolts which are not optimized for goods delivery.
The Origin is designed with carriage style seating with both rows of seats at the ends of the vehicle and an open space in the center. Access is through split sliding doors on either side of the vehicle. The delivery module is essentially a palette with lockers of various sizes similar to the Amazon lockers that can be found in many locations for package pickup.
The palette is designed to slide in through the open doors and sit in the center of the vehicle for easy access to the lockers. This approach allows an Origin to make multiple deliveries on each trip, thus minimizing the deadhead miles and reducing unit costs and road congestion. The ability to insert and remove the locker module will give Cruise the flexibility to switch modes throughout the day based on demand, thus increasing vehicle utilization.
Zoox also has a purpose-built robotaxi but it is shorter which would limit its ability to accommodate a similar module. Since Zoox is owned by Amazon, it’s probable that the Zoox robotaxi platform will also be used for mobile delivery lockers, but these may have to be dedicated to that use case rather than switching.
Cruise CEO Dan Ammann showed off a wheelchair accessible version of the upcoming Origin robotaxi ... [+]
CRUISEAccessibility to mobility for those that cannot drive due to physical limitations has always been one of the selling points of automated vehicles. Unsurprisingly, Cruise and its partners at GM GM -0.8% and Honda are also developing a wheelchair accessible version of the Origin. This would feature a ramp as well as having one of the seats removed to provide space to lock in a chair while the vehicle is in motion.
Both of these alternative use cases are likely to be implemented once volume production of the Origin begins at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in early 2023
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