Seeing no road to profit, GM shutters Cruise
After spending more than $10 billion to try to develop an autonomous robotaxi, General Motors is now calling time on the endeavor. On Tuesday afternoon, the automaker announced that it is done investing in Cruise's robotaxi development and will instead combine the startup's technical team with its internal efforts at GM.
After several years, GM has accepted the inevitable: Given the costs, there's no way to build a profitable robotaxi business. This year, GM will have spent around $2 billion on Cruise.
"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."