General Motors announced Tuesday it will stop development on its Cruise robotaxis, citing the costs of operating its driverless ride-hailing service.
Cruise racked up a troubled history in San Francisco, where it began operating driverless vehicles in 2021 and began serving paying customers the following year. Cruise vehicles occasionally stopped and blocked traffic or made inappropriate hard-braking maneuvers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation into Cruise’s autonomous vehicles in December 2022.
But the worst was yet to come. On Oct. 2, 2023, a Cruise vehicle struck a pedestrian who became trapped under the vehicle. The robotaxi then pulled over to the side of the road, dragging the victim some 20 feet at a slow speed, seriously injuring the person. The California Department of Motor Vehicles soon suspended Cruise’s permit to operate in the state. Cruise also halted its operations in Phoenix, Houston and Austin, Texas.
In January of this year, GM CEO Mary Barra insisted the automaker remained committed to Cruise. In April, Cruise returned to the streets of Phoenix to begin map data collection but had to recall its vehicles in August to fix a software issue that could result in unexpected braking.
GM invested billions in its Cruise subsidiary but more was needed. “Launching and operating a robotaxi business is expected to require a significant amount of incremental time and capital beyond the $10 billion we have already invested,” Barra said on a conference call Tuesday. “A robotaxi business is not General Motors’ core business,” Barra said.
“GM's decision to shutter Cruise, after investing over [$10] billion, highlights a stark reality in autonomous vehicles: even massive investment doesn't guarantee success when dealing with the complexity of real-world driving and public safety,” said Dev Nag, CEO of QueryPal, an AI-powered customer support company, in an email.
GM also faced increasing competition for autonomous ride-hailing services. Waymo now operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix and plans to enter Miami in early 2025. Uber and Waymo said they will partner on robotaxi service in Atlanta and Austin, Texas, next year. Lyft offers some autonomous rides in Las Vegas in collaboration with Motional and said it will add AVs in Atlanta in partnership with May Mobility. Elon Musk unveiled a prototype Tesla “Cybercab” in October and said the company would begin offering driverless trials of its Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV in California and Texas next year.
GM plans to leverage Cruise’s expertise in autonomous technology to further develop its driver-assistance software, called Super Cruise, available on some General Motors vehicles.
