Robotaxi company Cruise currently has its California permits suspended, but they are definitely plotting their comeback, and just announced they’re partnering to offer self-driving Cruise rides on the Uber app.

The once high-flying self-driving car company Cruise was temporarily driven out of California when the state DMV suspended their permit following an incident where a driverless Cruise vehicle dragged a pedestrian 20 feet last October. Cruise is now only operating in Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix, and then only with a human onboard to supervise things.  

But make no mistake, Cruise is surely plotting their comeback. And today, CNBC reports that Cruise is teaming up with Uber, apparently to offer rides in Cruise cars that users would hail via the Uber app.

A press release from Cruise and Uber describes this as a “multiyear strategic partnership to bring Cruise autonomous vehicles to the Uber platform.” The release says the rides would start “next year,” but does not specify in which cities this would be available. But the release is explicit that “when an Uber rider requests a qualifying ride on the Uber app, they may be presented with the option to have that trip fulfilled by a Cruise autonomous vehicle.”

Otherwise, the press release is quite threadbare and vague. It has a quote from replacement Cruise CEO Marc Whitten, and another quote from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. And then it simply wraps up quickly with “For more information…”

For those who remember the evolution of this self-driving car thing, you will recall that Uber was once trying to launch self-driving cars themselves. Those plans also ended ignominiously, when a self-driving Uber struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona in 2018.

But you can see advantages here for both companies. For Uber, this could be a way to fire all their human drivers as soon as possible, which they have wanted to do for years. While for Cruise, this could lead to wider adoption of their product as they try to get back in the game.

But Uber is clearly playing both sides, as they already partnered with self-driving rival Waymo to deliver Uber Eats deliveries earlier this year. Though one wonders how deeply Waymo would partner with Uber, considering that Uber employee Anthony Levandowski once stole Waymo’s trade secrets on his way out the door from Waymo.

Related: GM’s Cruise Robotaxis Very Softly Relaunch, But Not In SF, and With Human Drivers Again [SFist]

Image: General Motors Cruise self-driving car undergoing testing on the streets of the Mission District neighborhood of San Francisco, California, October 6, 2019. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)