Mobility

The General Motors automotive group has decided to put an end to its Cruise driverless autonomous cabs. This decision follows a serious accident with one of its robot cabs in 2023.

However good they may be, robots are still machines. General Motors (GM) has learned this the hard way. So much so, in fact, that it has decided to put an end to its fleet of Cruise robot cabs operating in several major US cities. They had been on commercial hiatus since a serious accident at the end of 2023 in San Francisco (California - USA). These autonomous cars will now be scrapped. Explanations... One of its robotaxis had run over and dragged a pedestrian knocked down by another vehicle driven by a human. By making a safety maneuver to the side of the road, the autonomous car aggravated the situation, unable to realize that it was endangering others.

License withdrawn

At the time of the investigation, Cruise staff had been slow to tell the truth about the autonomous vehicle's movements. The company reportedly denied that it was in motion at the time of the accident. Once the truth had been revealed, the authorities withdrew GM's license. This stop, which was thought to be momentary, nevertheless directly cost 900 jobs in the automotive group's subsidiary, a quarter of the workforce. It also forced the resignation of Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt. However, development continued with a view to integrating the Uber platform in 2025. In the end, everything came to a halt.

The end of the robotaxi

GM has decided to call it a day. Staff will be reassigned to other positions within the General Motors galaxy. In particular, the engineers will be in charge of developing driver assistance and (semi-)autonomous driving systems for passenger cars, a new strategic priority. No more driverless robotaxi for Cruise. This is blocking its move into Japan with co-investor Honda. Competitors Waymo with its Jaguar, Amazon with its Zoox project and - soon? - Tesla with its Cybercab don't seem determined to give up their fleets and projects just yet. 

Dummies

However, it's a blow for this mobility solution, even if General Motors officially cites the resources needed to face up to the competition as the reason for this change of course. Kyle Vogt didn't mince his words on X, calling GM executives - his former bosses - “big losers”. This did not impress shareholders, since after the announcement of the end of Cruise robotaxis, the automaker's shares gained more than 2% in electronic trading after the close of the New York Stock Exchange.

(MH with Olivier Duquesne - Source : Le Figaro - Picture : © Cruise - General Motors)