With the decision, General Motors is effectively pulling out of the robotaxi market.
General Motors will no longer fund its Cruise division’s robotaxi development, the company said on Tuesday.
The Detroit automaker cited the increasingly competitive robotaxi market, capital allocation priorities and the considerable time and resources necessary to grow the business as reasons for its decision.
«Cruise was well on its way to a robotaxi business — but when you look at the fact you’re deploying a fleet, there’s a whole operations piece of doing that», GM CEO Mary Barra said on a call Tuesday.
GM said it plans to instead «realign its autonomous driving strategy» to focus on advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous systems for use in personal vehicles. The company will combine the majority-owned Cruise LLC with GM technical teams.
The company currently owns about 90% of Cruise and has agreements with other shareholders that will raise its ownership to more than 97%, GM said in a statement.
