GM will no longer fund self-driving taxi

GM currently owns approximately 90% of Cruise, which it plans to raise to 97%, and has majority owned the company since 2016.

In addition to the considerable time and resources reason cited, GM said it will be combining Cruise and GM technical teams in a restructuring, to focus on autonomous and assisted driving. It has said that it will expect the restructuring to lower its spending by more than $1 billion annually but hasn’t said the number of Cruise employees it will be moving over to GM. 

“GM is committed to delivering the best driving experiences to our customers in a disciplined and capital efficient manner,” said Mary Barra, Chair and CEO of GM. “Cruise has been an early innovator in autonomy, and the deeper integration of our teams, paired with GM’s strong brands, scale, and manufacturing strength, will help advance our vision for the future of transportation.”

“As the largest US automotive manufacturer, we’re fully committed to autonomous driving and excited to bring GM customers its benefits – things like enhanced safety, improved traffic flow, increased accessibility, and reduced driver stress,” said Dave Richardson, Senior Vice President of software and services engineering.

In December 2023, the BBC reported on Cruise’s decision to axe 900 jobs; making up a quarter of its workforce, and the month prior, GM said it would cut costs at Cruise. At the time of reporting (December 2023) the company had reportedly lost more than $8bn since 2016.

Manufacturers seem to be grappling with the autonomous vehicle market, as some herald it as the new age of driver safety, while others remain concerned about regulating and testing self-driving vehicles on the road. Crise had to pull its US vehicles from testing in California after the state halted its testing permit following two incidents in which a self-driving car hit a pedestrian at 1.4mph and another dragged a woman after she was hit by another car driven by a person. Cruise also had to resolve a criminal charge in court by paying a $500,000 criminal fine after it admitted to providing a false record to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Tesla, which unveiled its self-driving taxi the Cybercab back in October 2024, witnessed its shares sliding following the announcement, although its Founder, Elon Musk, spoke of his personal belief in the future of self-driving technology.