(AOF) – Cruise, the autonomous car unit of General Motors, is preparing to resume testing its “robotaxis” in the coming weeks, probably in Houston and Dallas, according to Bloomberg. Cruise suspended its activities in the United States in October 2023 after an incident in San Francisco: one of its robotaxis dragged a pedestrian hit by another car. “We have not set a timetable for the deployment,” Cruise told Reuters. “Our goal is to restart operations in a city with manually driven vehicles and supervised testing as soon as possible.”
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A French market in good shape
The French automobile market recorded its tenth consecutive month of growth in October 2023 with 152,383 registrations of new passenger vehicles (+22% year-on-year). It increased by 16.49% over the first 10 months of 2023, with 1.44 million registrations, almost as many as in 2022 (1.52 million) but much less than the level of 2019 (2.2 million ). However, the forecast indicators are not good because new orders fell by 13% at the end of September 2023. The slowdown in orders could be explained by inflation, the rise in interest rates, and more prudent management of their cash flow by companies (half of the market). If Stellantis (Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Opel, Jeep) remains the leader of the French market, with a market share greater than 28%, the Renault group (Renault, Dacia, Alpine) benefited from good performances in October 2023, with almost 31% additional new registrations over one year. The French group represents 24.6% of the private car market.