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The intelligence came by Slack message .
Cruise chief operating officer Marc Whitten , who have the top mail in June , posted a message Tuesday good afternoon in the company ’s announcements communication channel along with a tie to apress releaseentitled “ GM to refocus autonomous drive developing on personal vehicle . ”
GM , which acquired the ego - driving motorcar inauguration in 2016,would no longer fund the caller , stop a deputation that hundreds of Cruise engineers had worked on for years .
Minutes afterwards , during an all - hands meeting , Cruise employees learned a few more details . The ego - driving car companionship would be absorbed into parent society GM and combined with the automaker ’s own effort to develop number one wood assistance features — and eventually fully autonomous personal vehicle . Whether their jobs would be secure or cut was , and still is , undecipherable .
That get together was brusque and unsatisfactory , according to one source , who notice that the senior leadership team was also surprised by this tour of consequence . Whitten , president and chief technology policeman Mo Elshenawy , and principal administrative officer Craig Glidden , led the all - helping hand .
Several Cruise employees who talk to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity said they were “ surprised ” and “ blindsided ” by the conclusion . One source told TechCrunch that employees learned about GM ’s plans the same prison term the medium did .
Staff were secernate they “ should be lofty ” of themselves and that “ the technology will go on , ” note there would be a restructuring and that it would take several calendar month for Cruise to conversion to GM ’s team .
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The executives provide no details about potential layoff , harmonize to rootage . However , several employee told TechCrunch they bear job cut . While details are slim , it ’s likely that the most vulnerable will be non - engineering roles or those related to robotaxi operations , let in government affairs , communication teams , ground operation , and remote assistance team in the city where Cruise has slowly restarted examination , such as Phoenix , Houston , and Dallas .
Our source say TechCrunch that they had been follow a roadmap to set in motion a driverless table service in Houston in 2025 , and were not expect this .
Cruise has been under atmospheric pressure to market robotaxis — and sire tax income — for year . And at one pointedness , hopes and ambitions were mellow . In 2021 , GM projected that Cruise would have tens of M of custom - build up Origin robotaxis on the road that could generate$50 billion in annual revenueby the closing of the tenner .
The company was eventually forced to push back its ambitious deadline , like many other autonomous fomite inauguration .
Cruise finally find in August 2023 the final permit required by California regulators to operate commercially in San Francisco . Two month afterward , the company would issue forth under vivid examination follow anOctober 2 incidentthat left a pedestrian stupefy under and then dragged by one of its robotaxis . That incident , and Cruise ’s actions in the prompt wake , led to Cruise losing its permit to operate in California , grounding its entire U.S. fleet , its co - founder andCEO Kyle Vogt stepping down , round of layoffs , and GM taking more direct controller over what was once a promising self - push inauguration .
Even as GM judge to reign in price , all roads seemed to target toward a reboot .
In June , GM pass Cruise a$850 million lifelineto assistance it relaunch examination of its robotaxis in Phoenix , Dallas , and Houston . Cruise even signed a partnership flock with Uber to launch its robotaxis on theUber platform in 2025 .
Still , there were signs that a pivot man was coming , notably when GM announced in June 2024 it would shelve the Origin , a custom - built robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedal that was firstrevealed in January 2020 . Barra tell shareowner at the time the decisiveness to dispute the Origin and instead expend the next - genesis Chevrolet Bolt in its operations would simplify their path to descale and addresses the regulatory uncertainty faced with the Origin robotaxi because of its singular intention . GM ingest a$583 million chargein the 2d poop related to Origin assets and other restructuring cost .
In 2022 , GM send off a request to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration for atemporary exemptionfrom six federal motor vehicle safety standards for the Origin that would let them to operate a vehicle that did n’t have a steering wheel . TheFAST Act , which was signed into constabulary by President Obama in December 2015 , allows manufacturer like GM to test and evaluate vehicle that might not otherwise meet Union motor fomite prophylactic standard ( FMVSS ) . If Cruise wanted to launch a commercial-grade overhaul — meaning charging for rides or delivery — with the Origin , it want particular exemptions from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration .
While GM await on the exemption , it continued ontogenesis and the eventual output of the custom - build Origin robotaxi . But as Reuters afterwards discovered and describe , GMwithdrew its requeston October 25 .
update : The clause was originally publish at 6:11 p.m. PT December 10 . The article has been update with young information regarding the company ’s Origin robotaxi and exemption request with federal safety regulators .
