GM scraps Cruise's robotaxi service
General Motors announced Tuesday that it would end funding for its Cruise robotaxi service.
The automaker said it would shift its focus to the development of advanced driver-assistance systems, furthering its path toward fully autonomous personal vehicles.
The company cited "considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market" as factors for its decision.
"Cruise has been an early innovator in autonomy, and the deeper integration of our teams, paired with GM’s strong brands, scale, and manufacturing strength, will help advance our vision for the future of transportation," GM's CEO Mary Barra said in a statement.
Cruise LLC was founded in 2013 and began performing tests for its self-driving cars in California in 2015. GM acquired the company a year later.
GM then invested billions of dollars in development and worked with Honda on advancing its technologies.
In 2021, the California Department of Motor Vehicles gave Cruise a permit for driverless taxis, many of which operated in San Francisco. A year later, Cruise service expanded to Arizona and Texas.
However, the California DMV suspended Cruise's permit in October 2023, following an investigation into pedestrian injuries involving the driverless vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruise over those incidents.
GM remains committed to bringing its customers the benefits of autonomous driving, according to Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering, who listed among those benefits "enhanced safety, improved traffic flow, increased accessibility, and reduced driver stress."
