Cruise Automation Inc. Announces Major Pause in Driverless Operations
During an announcement made at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, Cruise Automation Inc. CEO and CTO, Kyle Vogt, revealed that the embattled driverless car unit of General Motors will be halting all public road operations, including both supervised and manual operations. This comes as an expansion of last month’s pause of driverless operations.
According to a blog post by Cruise, this pause is part of an effort to rebuild public trust and undergo a full safety review. The self-driving car unit has been facing a series of safety concerns and incidents, including a recent announcement of a recall of 950 robotaxis after a pedestrian collision. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has also suspended Cruise’s deployment and testing permits for its autonomous vehicles.
This decision to pause all trips on public roads follows a board meeting at Cruise’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday. The company has also announced a reorganization and increased oversight from General Motors, with Craig Glidden becoming Cruise’s chief administrative officer.
In addition to this, Cruise has stated that it will hire an independent “safety expert” to assess its safety operations and culture, and will also expand its probe into a full review of its technology and safety systems.
The announcement has resulted in a ripple effect within the company, with Cruise revealing a round of contractor layoffs last Thursday. A company spokesperson mentioned that the layoffs were tied to the temporary suspension of driverless activities and the company’s plans to continue supervised operations without passengers.
GM has reported losses of roughly $1.9 billion on Cruise through September of this year in its third-quarter earnings update. Despite the challenges, Cruise has stated that it will maintain active simulation programs and continue to operate its vehicles in closed course training environments in order to stay focused on advancing AV technology.