General Motors puts robotaxi project on hold
General Motors has announced that it will cease funding the development of Cruise self-driving taxis.
The company says it will now “refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles”.
GM also pointed to the increasingly competitive robotaxi market as a reason for the move.
In October, Tesla boss Elon Musk unveiled the electric car giant’s long-awaited robotaxi, CyberCab, at the Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California.
GM attributed the change in strategy to “the substantial time and resources required to grow the business.”
The company did not say how many Cruise employees might be sent to GM.
GM, which owns about 90% of Cruise, said it has agreements with other shareholders that would increase its ownership to more than 97%.
Cruz said he will cut 900 jobs in December 2023About a quarter of its workforce.
Cruise had previously pulled all of its US vehicles from testing after California halted driverless testing permits.
In October 2023, one of its vehicles struck a pedestrian and dragged her for more than 20 feet (6 m), seriously injuring her.
cruise accepted to resolve a criminal investigation last month for submitting a false report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in connection with that crash.
Federal prosecutors said Cruise employees did not include details of the pedestrian being dragged in their account the morning after the incident.
Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt left the company a few weeks later.
On Tuesday, after GM’s announcement, Mr. Vogt Posted on social media platform “If it was unclear before, it’s clear now: GMs are a bunch of dummies.”
The Detroit-based manufacturer’s chief executive Mary Barra previously predicted the cruise business could generate $50bn (£39bn) in annual revenue by 2030.
Rival motor manufacturing companies have also struggled with projects to create autonomous vehicles.
In 2022, Ford and Volkswagen announced that they would shut down their self-driving car joint venture Argo AI.
Meanwhile, the emerging robotaxi industry Has attracted major players for a long time.
Along with Tesla, competitors in building self-driving cabs include Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, and technology giant Amazon.
