Like Waymo, the subsidiary of Alphabet (Google), General Motors has also developed a robotaxi service. Its Cruise subsidiary already offers trips in autonomous cars in the United States. But in a press release published this week, General Motors announces the end of this adventure. The automaker isn’t abandoning self-driving cars, but is making a pivot. Instead of developing a robotaxi service, it will instead focus on the development of its autonomous driving technology for individuals.
“GM is committed to delivering the best driving experiences to our customers in a disciplined and capital efficient manner”said Mary Barra, president and CEO of GM. “Cruise was an early innovator in autonomy, and the deeper integration of our teams, combined with GM’s strong brands, scale and manufacturing strength, will help advance our vision of the future of transportation.”
General Motors’ pivot is due to the fact that the robotaxis market is increasingly competitive, but also because managing and expanding a robotaxis fleet requires significant resources.
A new team dedicated to autonomous driving
Today, General Motors owns 90% of Cruise’s shares. He already has an agreement with investors to hold 97%, and will buy the remaining shares. Then, GM will carry out a restructuring and combine the Cruise teams with its technical teams, to develop autonomous driving. As a reminder, General Motors bought Cruise in 2016 and according to CNBC, it has already spent more than 10 billion dollars for this subsidiary.
Otherwise, General Motors’ decision could change the plans of Honda, which is also among Cruise’s investors. Indeed, the manufacturer had the ambition to deploy autonomous cars in Japan in 2026. However, these plans would now be reconsidered.
- Like Waymo, General Motors already offers robotaxis in the United States
- But the manufacturer has just announced an important pivot: it is abandoning robotaxis to focus on autonomous driving for individuals
- The robotaxis market is increasingly competitive and their expansion requires significant resources
- GM currently owns 90% of Cruise’s shares, but plans to buy the remaining 10% to merge Cruise’s team with its technical teams
