Since General Motors The Detroit automaker, which acquired San Francisco self-driving technology developer Cruise in 2016, has poured more than $8 billion into developing the robotaxi service. Now GM is turning off the spigot.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said on a call with investors today that the company will no longer invest in Cruise and its robotaxi service. Instead, GM says it will combine Cruise’s work on autonomy with its own team focused on driver-assistance features. Eventually, the combined team will produce “personal” self-driving cars, the chief executive said.
“Given the significant time and expense required to scale the robotaxi business in an increasingly competitive market, joining forces is more efficient and therefore consistent with our capital allocation priorities. We will,” Barra said on a conference call.
In a statement emailed to WIRED, Cruise CEO Mark Whitten said the company and board are “working closely with GM on next steps.” .
Cruz has had several months of uncertainty. Last fall, the company operated robotaxi services in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin, Texas, and was preparing to launch in more cities. Then, in October 2023, a Cruise car struck a pedestrian in San Francisco who was thrown by a human-driven vehicle in a hit-and-run. Weeks later, it was revealed that a Cruise employee had failed to tell regulators that one of the company’s vehicles had dragged a pedestrian more than 20 feet, seriously injuring a pedestrian. California officials revoked the company’s permit to operate self-driving cars in the state, and Cruise suspended operations nationwide.
Cruz never fully recovered from the incident, and critics said his approach to safety was flawed. Robotaxi companies paid millions of dollars in fines to federal and state authorities in connection with the incident. Nine executives and founder and CEO Kyle Vogt left, and GM ended up laying off nearly a quarter of its Cruise employees. Cruise began limited testing in a few cities this summer, but never returned to offering an Uber-like service.
Barra told analysts on Tuesday that GM realized that deploying and maintaining a robotaxi fleet was too expensive and too far removed from the manufacturer’s core business of making and selling cars.
“It may have been unclear before, but it’s clear now: GM is a bunch of dummies,” Vogt posted on X on Tuesday afternoon.
what happens next
The cruise technology will now be used to improve the company’s Super Cruise technology, which is designed to perform “hands-free” driving tasks such as lane keeping, lane changes and emergency braking on certain highways. Drivers have been warned to always use caution when using Super Cruise, which is not capable of “self-driving”.
GM eventually plans to sell car buyers “Level 4” vehicles that can drive fully autonomously on some, but not all, roads. “We know that people around the world like to drive their cars, but that’s not the case in every situation,” Barra told analysts.
General Motors owns 90% of Cruise’s stock and has reached an agreement with other shareholders to own more than 97% of the company’s stock. GM plans to “reorganize and refocus” Mr. Cruz as part of the effort, but Mr. Barra could not say whether the new arrangement would result in job cuts.
