From General Motors After acquiring San Francisco self-driving technology developer Cruise in 2016, the Detroit automaker has invested more than $8 billion in creating a robotaxi service. Now GM is turning off the spigot.
On a call with investors today, General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the company would no longer invest in Cruise and its robotaxi services. Instead, GM says it will combine Cruise’s efforts on autonomy with its own teams focused on driver-assist features. Over time, the combined team will build “personal” autonomous vehicles, the CEO said.
“Given the considerable time and expense required to scale a robotaxi business in an increasingly competitive market, combining forces would be more efficient and therefore consistent with our capital allocation priorities,” Barra said on the call.
In an emailed statement to WIRED, Cruise CEO Marc Whitten said the company and its board of directors are “collaborating closely with GM on next steps.”
Cruise had a few months of uncertainty. Last fall, the company operated robotaxi services in San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin, Texas, and was preparing to launch them in more cities. Then, in October 2023, a Cruise vehicle struck a San Francisco pedestrian who had been thrown by a vehicle driven by a man in a hit-and-run. Weeks later, it emerged that Cruise employees had failed to disclose to regulators that the company vehicle had dragged the pedestrian more than 20 feet, seriously injuring him. California officials withdrew the company’s permission to operate its self-driving cars in the state, and Cruise halted operations nationwide.
Cruise never fully recovered from the incident, which critics said pointed to a flawed approach to safety. The robotaxi company has paid million-dollar fines related to the incident to federal and state authorities. Nine top executives and the company’s founder and CEO, Kyle Vogt, left, and GM eventually laid off nearly a quarter of Cruise’s employees. Cruise began limited tests in a handful of cities this summer, but never offered an Uber-like service again.
Barra told analysts Tuesday that GM has found that deploying and maintaining a robotaxi fleet is too expensive and too far removed from the maker’s core business of building and selling cars.
“If it wasn’t clear before, it is now: GMs are a bunch of fools,” Vogt aware on Tuesday X afternoon.
What comes next?
Cruise technology will now be used to refine the company’s Super Cruise technology, which is designed to perform some “hands-free” driving tasks (holding, changing lanes and emergency braking) on specific roads. Drivers are warned to always be alert while using Super Cruise, which cannot drive “autonomously.”
Over time, GM intends to sell “Level 4” vehicles to car buyers, which can drive completely autonomously on some roads, but not all. “We know that people around the world love to drive their own vehicles, but not in all situations,” Barra told analysts.
General Motors owns 90 percent of Cruise and says it has reached an agreement with other shareholders to own more than 97 percent of the company. GM will “restructure and refocus” Cruise as part of the effort, but Barra could not say whether the new deal would lead to layoffs.