Cruise, the autonomous car firm that is majority owned by General Motors, could quickly be giving rides in driverless check automobiles to passengers in California.

The California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) mentioned on Friday that Cruise is allowed to present passengers rides in prototype robotaxis.

In a public assertion, the CPUC said Cruise is the primary autonomous car developer to acquire such a allow. So as to enable passengers to experience of their check automobiles with out a driver on board, Cruise could not cost charges for the rides and must submit quarterly stories about its autonomous automobiles, in addition to a passenger security plan, the CPUC mentioned.

As CNBC beforehand reported, Cruise expects manufacturing of its Origin driverless shuttles to begin in early 2023. The corporate’s check fleet at the moment contains tons of of Chevrolet Bolt EVs, that are geared up with Cruise’s driverless expertise.

Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving automotive unit, and Cruise are each searching for permits wanted to begin charging for rides and deliveries utilizing their autonomous automobiles in San Francisco, in keeping with a Reuters report in May.

Alongside Cruise, seven different corporations, together with Waymo, Amazon-owned Zoox and Aurora, have permits from the CPUC for driverless car testing on California roads, however they don’t seem to be but permitted to taxi members of the general public round with out a driver on board.

Autonomous car builders require separate permits from the Division of Motor Autos and CPUC to check and ultimately function their driverless automobiles commercially within the state.

Though commercialization is taking longer than anticipated because of technical, security and regulatory hurdles, the most important tech and auto corporations are persevering with to take a position closely in autonomous automobiles. Earlier this 12 months, Cruise raised billions of {dollars} from strategic backers together with Microsoft, Honda and Walmart.

WATCH: Microsoft invests in GM’s Cruise to accelerate self-driving cars