GM Renews Efforts To Develop Autonomous Cars After Cruise Shut Down: Report

General Motors (GM) is seeking to bring back former Cruise employees in renewed efforts to develop a driverless car, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company would focus on developing autonomous cars for personal use this time, as compared to earlier, when it was looking to develop a robotaxi service, the report said. The plan was conveyed to employees in a meeting on August 6 by Sterling Anderson, the report said, citing sources. GM appointed Anderson as executive vice president and chief product officer in May.

Anderson said that the company is trying to bring back some Cruise workers and hire new staff for the automaker’s Mountain View, California, office, according to the report. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around GM trended in the ‘bearish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume remained at ‘extremely low’ levels.

In December, GM said it would no longer fund Cruise‘s robotaxi development but instead combine the majority-owned unit into its technical teams. The robotaxi development work needs considerable time and resources to scale, GM reasoned, while adding that the market is getting increasingly competitive.

The company had said it would instead work on the progress of Super Cruise, its hands-off, eyes-on driving feature, deployed in passenger vehicles. 

Cruise was a major robotaxi player in Waymo's leagues until October 2023, when a Cruise robotaxi got involved in an accident in San Francisco, giving rise to heightened regulatory scrutiny, the exit of high-profile executives, including co-founder Kyle Vogt, and the suspension of robotaxi services.

A few months later, GM said it was abandoning its plans to build the pedal-less Origin autonomous vehicle and said it would instead use its next-generation Chevrolet Bolt for autonomous driving purposes. Still, by December 2024, the company announced Cruise’s closure.

GM stock is up by about 1% this year and by about 26% over the past 12 months. 

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