General Motors
’ robotaxi unit Cruise is driving to rebuild public trust amid safety concerns. It looks like a long and slow road ahead.
Cruise will eventually restart its driverless operations, but in just one city initially, and has paused plans for its Origin vehicle—set to be produced by GM—The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an email sent to employees Wednesday.
The company halted its driverless operations nationwide last month after a crash in early October led to the suspension of its license in California. A hit-and-run victim ended up under a Cruise taxi and was dragged several feet before the vehicle stopped, Barron’s previously reported.
Just like its vehicles, the company was left with no one behind the wheel after CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt resigned earlier this week. Mo Elshenawy and Craig Glidden are serving as co-presidents, Cruise said Sunday.
The company last week broadened the suspension of its operations to include all supervised and manual operations, and expanded an independent safety review. At the time it said the voluntary pause was “a further step to rebuild public trust.”
Elshenawy wrote the email to employees cited by the Journal. In it, he suggested Cruise will be taking things slowly.
“Once we have taken steps to improve our safety culture and rebuild trust, our strategy is to relaunch in one city and prove our performance there, before expanding,” a Cruise spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Barron’s Thursday. They added that the Origin—Cruise’s fully autonomous robotaxi—was part of the company’s longer-term plans. In the near term, Cruise will be using its current fleet of Chevrolet Bolt vehicles retrofitted with its autonomous-driving technology.
Chevrolet is owned by GM.
The auto maker previously had plans to expand its driverless taxi service across the U.S.
GM, which owns about 80% of Cruise, told Barron’s earlier this month it was finishing production of a small number of commercial Cruise vehicles and then planned to pause production temporarily.
GM and Cruise didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments early Thursday.
Cruise is still important for GM, which projected the robotaxi company could generate $50 billion in annual sales by 2030. That forecast hasn’t been updated in recent months.
GM will want Cruise to get back on the right track, even if it takes time.
Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@barrons.com
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