With the help of Cruise autonomous vehicles, the San Francisco-Marin County Food Bank is able to offer home-delivered groceries, serving thousands of participants every week.

What initially started as a crisis response program in 2020 has grown into a long-term community partnership. To date, Cruise has delivered 2.5 million meals, according to the San Francisco-Marin County Food Bank.

Cruise also is a partner of food rescue nonprofit Replate. The two entities launched a first-of-its-kind driverless, all-electric food rescue initiative to combat food insecurity, food waste, and climate change. Cruise’s AVs now deliver recovered meals from local restaurants and business to nonprofits serving those experiencing food insecurity.

As Cruise’s driverless service expands to new cities across the country, so too will its work to fight food insecurity, and now food waste -- together with Replate, according to the companies. 

The company has also launched Cruise for Good, anchored by the company’s commitment to dedicate at least 1% of its fleet to serve the needs of local communities.

In addition, millions of Americans don’t have access to reliable transportation, which in turn creates barriers to economic mobility. That’s why Cruise extended its partnership with nonprofit SF New Deal to provide free rides to late-shift service workers in San Francisco. 

In the first few months of the partnership, Cruise provided thousands of rides to hospitality workers, who often have limited safe or affordable ways to get to and from work.

Self-driving vehicles like Cruise are not without controversy and detractors. Recently, a hit-and-run driver struck a pedestrian, tossing her into the path of a Cruise self-driving car that drove over her, according to videos of the collision taken by Cruise in San Francisco. Cruise and its rival Waymo have sparred with San Francisco city officials over their plans to expand their robotaxi fleets. 

Besides the philanthropic efforts, Cruise and Waymo have tried to improve their image with goodwill measures like sponsorships of the San Francisco Giants and the San Francisco Marathon.