GM’s Cruise to re-launch driverless robotaxis

Just weeks after California banned its self-driving vehicles from public roads after an accident last month, Cruise, the robotaxi unit of General Motors (GM), is planning to re-launch its service in an unspecified city before expanding it to others.

Last week, the company said that while it conducts a safety review of its robotaxis, it postponed all supervised and manual car trips in the U.S.

CEO Kyle Vogt and chief product officer Daniel Kan were forced to step down due to the incident, which is a setback for an industry dependent on public trust and the cooperation of regulators.

In a statement, Cruise said, “Once we have taken steps to improve our safety culture and rebuild trust, our strategy is to re-launch in one city and prove our performance there before expanding.”

It will focus on the Bolt-based Cruise AVs in the near term with a longer-term strategy focusing on the Origin, a multi-passenger vehicle without a steering wheel or other controls for operation by a human driver, the company added.

Cruise and its autonomous vehicle technology could generate US$50 billion in revenue by 2030, said GM CEO Mary Barra, making the robotaxi business a major part of her strategy to double revenue to $280 billion.

However, GM lost more than $700 million at Cruise in the third quarter and more than $8 billion since 2016.

In a note this week, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said, “Investors will be watching closely to evaluate whether management sees GM’s challenges as limited to Cruise or if there is broader discussion about capital allocation across GM’s portfolio.”

The city where operations will be re-launched has not been disclosed by GM and Cruise.