Dive Brief:
- As General Motors looks to restart its Cruise robotaxi operations, CEO Mary Barra told investors during the company’s Tuesday earnings call, “As you look at how we plan to fund the business, we're exploring quite a few options right now, including potentially … taking outside investments as well.”
- But the GM subsidiary is still bleeding cash. It lost $2.7 billion last year and expects expenses to be about $1.7 billion this year, GM Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said on the call.
- Cruise recalled all of its driverless vehicles in November in the wake of an Oct. 2, 2023, incident in San Francisco in which one of its robotaxis struck and dragged a pedestrian trapped underneath as the vehicle pulled over to the side of the road. The company put its vehicles back on the road in Phoenix in April, with drivers and without passengers, to update its mapping technology.
Dive Insight:
Barra told investors that GM is “very excited about where we are in the technology and very much believe in it.” She explained that operations in Phoenix will progress from full-time human drivers to supervised autonomous driving and then to “unsupervised,” or driverless, operations. Barra said GM wants to demonstrate “that the model works in one city” and then expand it to other cities.
Cruise lost its permit to operate driverless vehicles in California in October. A bill working its way through the California state legislature would give the state’s cities and counties the authority to regulate autonomous vehicle services within their jurisdictions. “Under current California law, state agencies are the only regulatory bodies with any regulatory authority over AV operations,” said Peter Finn, Teamsters International western region vice president and president of Teamsters Joint Council 7, in an emailed statement. “This isn't just dangerous, it's widely unpopular and concerning to voters.”
Frustration erupted in February, when a crowd in San Francisco attacked a driverless robotaxi operated by Waymo, a Cruise competitor. In an unrelated incident in Phoenix in December, two Waymo autonomous vehicles hit a pickup truck that was being towed. The company, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, recalled its software after an internal investigation and a meeting with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Cruise revealed in a Jan. 25 blog post that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission opened investigations into the Oct. 2, 2023, incident. NHTSA is also investigating Cruise for reports of pedestrian collisions and incidents where Cruise vehicles came to a standstill on the road, creating dangerous situations for passengers and other drivers.
Barra said on the call, “We are engaging frequently with regulators and stakeholders and building trust as we regain momentum. Safety will remain front and center and will guide our progress.”
