The field of companies competing to launch robotaxi services just got narrower, after General Motors announced a major pivot of its self-driving taxi company, Cruise, which instead will now develop autonomous driving tech for the automotive giant’s passenger cars.
The Tuesday announcement that GM is halting additional funding of Cruise’s robotaxi development and repositioning its work to support the carmaker’s own self-driving tech closes a long and very expensive chapter in the companies’ partnership. The Detroit maker of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac brands acquired Cruise in 2016 for $1 billion, and since then has invested another $3.45 billion to raise its current ownership stake to 90 percent. In announcing its decision, GM said it will increase that position to over 97 percent—a sign, said company CEO Mary Barra, that while it now questions the viability of robotaxi activities, it doesn’t doubt the value of tech that was developed through those efforts.
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