GM takes full control of Cruise in autonomous personal vehicle shift

DETROIT: General Motors said on Tuesday it had completed the full acquisition of its Cruise business to focus on developing the autonomous technology for personal vehicles not robotaxis.

The Detroit automaker said it plans to integrate the Cruise technology into its Super Cruise system, which allows drivers to operate the vehicle hands-off on 1.2 million kilometres of roads in North America and is available on more than 20 GM vehicle models.

GM said in December it would halt funding of the Cruise robotaxi business. This followed a year of trying to overcome challenges that arose after one of its robotaxis struck and seriously injured a pedestrian who had been hit by another vehicle.

GM had invested more than US$10 billion in Cruise since 2016.

The merger will result in the reduction of 50% of Cruise's staff, said a Cruise spokesperson, who declined to specify the total number of employees affected. A source familiar with the matter said nearly 1,000 employees were laid off as a result of the acquisition.

"We are focused on combining efforts with General Motors to accelerate autonomy at scale on personal autonomous vehicles," the spokesperson said in a statement.

The GM and Cruise teams will work on expanding Super Cruise to streets in urban environments, the company said.

Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering, said that the move will "accelerate our work on both assisted-driving and autonomous driving."

During its fourth-quarter earnings call last month, GM executives pitched Super Cruise as one of its growth areas this year.

CEO Mary Barra told investors the automaker is forecasting Super Cruise will bring in about US$2 billion in total annual revenue within five years.