After Cruise shutdown: General Motors renews autonomous driving push
General Motors had long been among the front-runners in developing autonomous driving. Its “Cruise” division, launched in 2016, gave the US group a notable lead until the end of the decade. As part of the project, GM partnered with Microsoft and Honda.
In autumn 2023, however, a serious accident in San Francisco damaged the programme’s reputation. A driverless Cruise vehicle dragged a woman several metres, leaving her seriously injured. She had to be freed from under the car using specialist equipment.
That was not the only incident. Fully autonomous Cruise robotaxis allegedly blocked emergency vehicles multiple times in the city and triggered several rear-end collisions with abrupt braking. California authorities ultimately revoked Cruise’s testing permit, prompting then-CEO Kyle Vogt to resign.
In the following months, GM cut spending on research and development in the sector, though losses remained high. According to the New York Times, the project cost the carmaker around $600 million per quarter in 2023 – roughly €516 million. By late 2024, faced with intensifying competition, GM wound down the Cruise division entirely. Over the year, the company dismissed 1,000 employees, halving Cruise’s workforce.
According to Bloomberg, GM has not abandoned its ambitions. Instead, the group plans to intensify its work on autonomous driving, now focusing on private passenger cars rather than robotaxis. The first stage aims to allow drivers to remove their hands from the wheel and travel with their eyes closed; eventually, the system should operate with no human in the driver’s seat at all.
On 6 August, GM held an employee meeting where Sterling Anderson outlined the plans. Anderson previously led Tesla’s Autopilot programme and worked at Aurora Innovation, specialising in autonomous lorries. He joined GM as Chief Product Officer earlier this year and announced a recruitment drive for autonomous driving specialists, including some former Cruise staff, who will be based at GM’s Mountain View office.
GM continues to gather data for autonomous driving development using human-driven vehicles equipped with lidar systems. According to spokesperson Chaiti Sen, these vehicles support the creation of simulation models that form the basis for further development.
CEO Mary Barra remains committed to autonomous driving despite recent setbacks. She reaffirmed this priority when presenting the company’s Q2 2025 results, alongside plans for a domestic, China-independent battery supply chain.
This article was first published by Elias Holdenried for electrive’s German edition.
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