General Motors (GM) today announced that it will no longer fund Cruise LLC’s robotaxi deployment work. It cited long development times, high costs, and an increasingly competitive robotaxi market as the reasons behind its decision.
Since acquiring the self-driving startup in 2016, GM has poured more than $10 billion of funding into Cruise. In June, for example, GM invested another $850 million into the self-driving startup, despite it losing $3.48 billion in 2023. Now, GM said it will combine the Cruise and GM technical teams into a single effort to advance autonomous and assisted driving. The companies have not determined how many of Cruise’s employees will move to GM with the change.
“GM is committed to delivering the best driving experiences to our customers in a disciplined and capital-efficient manner,” said Mary Barra, the chair and CEO of GM. “Cruise has been an early innovator in autonomy, and the deeper integration of our teams, paired with …