Cruise Tests Fully Autonomous Vehicles in San Francisco

General Motors' Cruise is now testing its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco without human monitors in the driver seat, CNBC reports. California has granted permits to five AV companies to test without a safety driver: Cruise, AutoX, Zoox, Waymo, and Nuro.

This marks the first deployment of an autonomous vehicle in the U.S. without a driver behind the wheel. The safety operator has the ability to bring the vehicle to a stop during an emergency, but does not have access to standard driver controls.

While human operators will not be in the driver's seat, there will be someone in the passenger seat during the beginning of the tests.