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General Motors has announced that it will stop funding the development of the Cruise self-driving taxi.<\/p>\n
The company says it will now “refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles”.<\/p>\n
GM also pointed to the increasingly competitive robotaxi market as a reason for the move.<\/p>\n
In October, Tesla boss Elon Musk unveiled the electric car giant’s long-awaited robotaxi, the Cybercab, at the Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
GM attributed the change of strategy to “the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business”.<\/p>\n
The company did not say how many Cruise employees could be moved over to GM.<\/p>\n
GM, which owns about 90% of Cruise, said it has agreements with other shareholders that will raise its ownership to more than 97%.<\/p>\n
In December 2023, Cruise said it would cut 900 jobs<\/a>, about a quarter of its workforce.<\/p>\n Cruise had earlier pulled all of its US vehicles from testing after California halted its driverless testing permit.<\/p>\n In October 2023, one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian and dragged her for more than 20ft (6m), leaving her seriously injured.<\/p>\n Cruise admitted<\/a> to submitting a false report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in connection to that crash, resolving a criminal investigation last month.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors said Cruise employees did not include a description of the pedestrian being dragged as part of their account on the morning after the incident.<\/p>\n Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt left the company a few weeks later.<\/p>\n