From General Motors acquired San Francisco self-driving-tech developer Cruise in 2016, the Detroit automaker poured more than $8 billion into building a robotaxi service. Now GM is turning off the spigot.
In a call with investors today, General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the company will no longer invest in Cruise and its robotic services. Instead, GM says it will combine Cruise’s autonomous efforts with its driver-assistance teams. Ultimately, the joint team will develop autonomous “personal” vehicles, the executive said.
“Given the considerable time and expense required to grow a robotaxi business in a competitive market, pooling will be efficient and therefore in line with funding priorities,” Barra said on the call.
In an emailed statement to WIRED, Cruise CEO Marc Whitten said the company and its board are “working closely with GM on next steps.”
Cruise had an uncertain few months. Last fall, the company was operating robot services in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin, Texas, and is preparing to launch in more cities. Then in October 2023, a Cruise vehicle hit a pedestrian in San Francisco who had been thrown by a human-driven car during a hit-and-run. After weeks, it emerged that Cruise employees did not disclose to the regulators that the company’s car dragged a pedestrian for more than 20 meters, and he was seriously injured. California officials revoked the company’s license to operate its autonomous vehicles in the state, and Cruise suspended operations nationwide.
Cruise never recovered from the incident, which critics say points to a safety lapse. The robotics company has paid millions in fines related to the incident to federal and state authorities. Nine top executives and company founder and CEO Kyle Vogt left, and eventually GM laid off about a quarter of Cruise’s workforce. Cruise began a limited test in a few cities this summer but has yet to return to offering an Uber-like service.
Barra told analysts on Tuesday that GM has found that moving and maintaining a fleet of robots is too expensive and too far removed from the manufacturer’s business of building and selling cars.
“In case it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now: GM is a bunch of dummies,” Vogt wrote in X on Tuesday afternoon.
Next
The Cruise technology will now be used to refine the company’s Super Cruise technology, which is designed to perform certain “manual” driving tasks—lane keeping, lane changing, and emergency braking—on certain highways. Drivers are warned to stay alert while using Super Cruise, which cannot drive “independently.”
Eventually, GM aims to sell “level 4” vehicles to car buyers, which can drive autonomously in some but not all cases. “We know that people everywhere like to drive their own cars, but not in all situations,” Barra told analysts.
General Motors owns 90% of Cruise and says it has reached an agreement with other shareholders to own more than 97% of the company. GM will “reengineer and refocus” Cruise as part of the effort, but Barra could not say whether the new plan will lead to layoffs.
Source link
