GM says Cruise will exit the robotaxi business!!

GM says Cruise will exit the robotaxi business, and Cruise and GM's technical teams will be combined to focus on autonomous tech for upcoming GM vehicles. So then there was only one? And by one, I basically mean Waymo, at least in the consumer self driving space? First, here’s what GM itself said. Quote:

General Motors (NYSE: GM) plans to realign its autonomous driving strategy and prioritize development of advanced driver assistance systems on a path to fully autonomous personal vehicles. GM will build on the progress of Super Cruise, the company’s hands-off, eyes-on driving feature, now offered on more than 20 GM vehicle models and currently logging over 10 million miles per month.

GM intends to combine the majority-owned Cruise LLC and GM technical teams into a single effort to advance autonomous and assisted driving. Consistent with GM’s capital allocation priorities, GM will no longer fund Cruise’s robotaxi development work given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.

“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.”

“As the largest U.S. automotive manufacturer, we’re fully committed to autonomous driving and excited to bring GM customers its benefits – things like enhanced safety, improved traffic flow, increased accessibility, and reduced driver stress,” said Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering. ENDQUOTE

And quoting Bloomberg:

It’s a big retrench for GM and Cruise, which survived a shakeout among autonomous-driving companies and restarted operations after one of its cars dragged a pedestrian last year.

The move has significant implications for GM. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra wanted to transform the automaker into a transportation technology company and double GM’s revenue by 2030 in part by generating $50 billion from Cruise. Without a robotaxi business to bring in fares, that goal looks remote.

GM is pulling back just as Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo expands into more cities and Tesla Inc. plans to start its robotaxi business in 2026. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now one of the most influential voices in President-elect Donald Trump’s circles and has pressed for a federal framework for self-driving cars.

Ending the robotaxi push brings GM closer to its main business. The company will develop the technology to enhance its core business of building cars, scrapping dreams of mobility as a service. ENDQUOTE

Right. I kind of don’t get the timing of this, unless this is merely a dollars and cents calculation. Waymo is clearly hitting scale… pedal to the metal if you will forgive the pun. It might take years, but if Waymo can just scale up ride hailing region by region like a burger joint does franchising in territories, they seem to be having a bit of a breakthrough moment, as we’ve discussed. And as the new administration clearly is motivated to create a framework for self-driving tech, why (and forgive the pun again) slam on the breaks now?

#gm #cruise #selfdriving