Cruise partners with the Houston Food Bank

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest.

The Houston Food Bank and autonomous vehicle company Cruise launched a program to deliver produce and non-perishable items to expecting mothers in the city.

The deliveries are a part of the Houston Food Bank’s Food Rx program, through which people can receive a food prescription when referred by a designated Healthcare Partner or when they commit to a Community Health Program that improves their health and well-being.

“This innovative program will be very insightful and impactful, and partnership with Cruise allows us to leverage new technology to support at-risk new and expectant mothers with essential food packages delivered right to their doorstep, ensuring they have what they need to care for their families,” said Brian Greene, president/CEO of Houston Food Bank, in a statement.

Cruise will provide the autonomous vehicles with safety drivers to deliver packages of produce and non-perishable to those who are pregnant and high-risk, according to the news release. Houston Food Bank spokesperson Paula Murphy said in an email that the mothers must be signed up for the program, along with their healthcare provider who deems them at high risk, to be eligible.

There will be 180 deliveries to provide 6,000 meals. Murphy said the food deliveries will happen every two weeks, with the next delivery being Oct. 25.

The vehicles will serve several places in Houston in certain ZIP codes.

[…]

Cruise returned to Houston for on-road testing in June after a seven-month pause due to safety concerns involving the company’s vehicles posing potential risks to pedestrians.

See here for some background on Cruise. I assume the reason for the inclusion of the safety drivers is partly because Cruise is very much still working out the kinks in their autonomous driving systems and partly so that a human can actually bring the food to these women’s front doors and not just to the street in front of their house or the parking lot of their apartment. It’s a cool idea and a clever way to generate some goodwill after the debacle that was Cruise’s initial rollout. I hope it all goes well.

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One Response to Cruise partners with the Houston Food Bank

  1. J says:
    October 27, 2024 at 12:54 pm

    It is a nice idea and I hope they can keep it up. I was behind a Cruise car on my bike one day when it committed an error at a residential intersection, signaling a left turn into a curb. The little car, named Moth, then had to pull over and stop. I felt an immediate kinship with Moth, since it was kind of a screwup, like me. It makes me happy to see little Moth again. Will other people come to see these cars as errant pets?

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