The US car manufacturer General Motors (GM) will withdraw from the self-driving robotaxis business. The company justified the move with increasing competition in the market and a “significant investment of time and resources”. General Motors Instead, I want to concentrate on the development of driver assistance systems for private vehicles.
The car manufacturer took over the robotaxi company Cruise in 2016 – at the time a pioneer in autonomous driving. Since then, GM has invested billions of dollars to further develop the company. Robotaxis were allowed onto the streets in several major US cities.
At the beginning of October 2023 there was a serious accident in San Francisco. A woman came under a robotaxi, was dragged several meters and seriously injured. The authorities then granted Cruise the operating license for its self-driving taxis. All trips with the company's cars were suspended for months. Cruise's boss, Kyle Vogt, also resigned during the ongoing investigation.
Cruise engineers move to GM
In June, General Motors invested another $850 million in its subsidiary. “A robotaxi business is not the core business of General Motors,” said General Motors boss Mary Barra in a conference call with analysts. The group's commitment to “autonomous technology” is “unwavering”. The cruise engineers are expected to move to GM's teams after the company ends.
Meanwhile, other companies are sticking with robotaxis. The Google sister company Waymo and the Chinese digital company Baidu already let paying customers drive around in taxis without a driver. Tesla has announced that it wants to enter the business.
