Cruise CEO Vogt Resigns at GMs Troubled Self-Driving Car Unit

Table Of Content

• Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles
• How will driverless cars ‘talk’ to pedestrians? Waymo has a few ideas
• GM’s big bet on driverless cars turns sour
• CEO of GM's Cruise robo-taxi unit resigns amid US safety review
• Renault to sell 5% stake to Nissan as carmakers rebalance alliance
• After robotaxi dragged pedestrian 20 feet, Cruise founder and CEO resigns

“We continue to believe strongly in Cruise’s mission and the potential of its transformative technology as we look to make transportation safer, cleaner and more accessible,” Barra stated in an email to employees, according to TechCrunch. And the resignations may not be over; Dan Kan, a co-founder of Cruise and the company’s chief product officer, is also stepping down, according to a source with knowledge of the events. "The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust," Cruise said in a post on X at the time. "Part of this involves taking a hard look inwards at how we do work at Cruise, even if it means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult." The announcement comes after Cruise said in late October that it is pausing operations of its driverless fleet throughout the U.S. following a suspension by the state of California.

Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles

As a result, California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s permit to operate driverless cars in the state. A video, which TechCrunch viewed a day after the incident, showed the robotaxi braking aggressively and coming to a stop over the woman. The DMV’s order of suspension stated that Cruise withheld about seven seconds of video footage, which showed the robotaxi then attempting to pull over and subsequently dragging the woman 20 feet. Kyle Vogt, one of Cruise's two founders and later its CEO, declared Sunday on X that he had quit the company a decade after starting it.

GM Cruise cofounder, senior exec Dan Kan quits day after CEO exit - Reuters

GM Cruise cofounder, senior exec Dan Kan quits day after CEO exit.

Posted: Mon, 20 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

How will driverless cars ‘talk’ to pedestrians? Waymo has a few ideas

Cruise also paused operations of its "supervised" AV fleet thereafter, which seemingly returned to service this month according to the company blog. However, employee morale at Cruise remains low according to TechCrunch, which reports the company has yet to find a replacement CEO and has laid off contracted workers. Vogt sent out an email Saturday saying that certain employees could sell a limited number of shares in a one-time opportunity. Vogt didn’t provide many details but said the company was developing a plan to conduct a new tender offer to provide restricted stock unit liquidity to mitigate potential tax implications. Dan Kan, who co-founded Cruise with Vogt and held a far less public-facing role, has also resigned, TechCrunch has confirmed with sources familiar with the matter. "We continue to believe strongly in Cruise's mission and the potential of its transformative technology as we look to make transportation safer, cleaner and more accessible," she said.

GM’s big bet on driverless cars turns sour

Ammann, a former investment banker, began leading Cruise in 2019 after serving as GM's president and chief financial officer before that. "I suspect at least one more high level exec will have to resign — anyone who made the call to obfuscate or omit information in communication with the California DMV," he said. "In my opinion, Cruise has been too slow in taking steps to rebuild trust with staff, regulators and the public. Executive departures are table stakes." Vogt expressed optimism about Cruise's future without him, saying the team is "executing on a solid, multi-year roadmap and an exciting product vision."

Exclusive: New leader of GM's Cruise acknowledges 'all-time low' amid safety review - Reuters

Exclusive: New leader of GM's Cruise acknowledges 'all-time low' amid safety review.

Posted: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Earlier this year, John Krafcik announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Waymo after helping lead the company since 2015. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on October 16 opened an investigation into Cruise vehicles after receiving reports of two pedestrian injuries, including the October 2 incident. The Cruise cars "may not have exercised appropriate caution around pedestrians in the roadway," the agency said.

Vogt's resignation comes roughly two years after he was reappointed as CEO, following an unexpected departure by Dan Ammann, a former GM executive, in December 2021. According to its most recent quarterly update, GM has lost roughly $1.9 billion on Cruise between January and September 2023, including $732 million in the third quarter alone. In October 2021, GM said it expected "new businesses" such as Cruise and its BrightDrop commercial EV business to grow from $2 billion to $80 billion during that timeframe. In orders of suspension the California DMV issued to Cruise, the regulators accused the company of failing to give a transparent account of what happened during the pedestrian collision. GM didn’t provide a reason for Ammann’s departure except to say he was leaving to “pursue other opportunities.” A spokesperson for Cruise declined to provide any additional comment.

News

(Reuters) - - Kyle Vogt, the CEO of General Motors' robot-taxi unit Cruise, has resigned from the company a day after apologizing to staff as the company undergoes a safety review of its U.S. fleet. The company recalled nearly 1,000 vehicles to update their software after the incident. The founder of General Motors-owned Cruise has stepped down less than a month after the driverless car company paused operations after an accident and the loss of permission to operate in California. The Cruise vehicle then moved "rightward before braking aggressively, but still made contact with the pedestrian," the company said. "The AV detected a collision, bringing the vehicle to a stop; then attempted to pull over to avoid causing further road safety issues, pulling the individual forward approximately 20 feet." On Saturday, one day before resigning, Vogt reportedly apologized to staff in an email.

The DMV action came three weeks after a Cruise vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco. A woman entered a crosswalk at nighttime and was hit by two cars, the second of which was the Cruise vehicle. First, a Nissan Sentra "tragically struck and propelled the pedestrian into the path of the AV," Cruise said in a description of the incident.

After robotaxi dragged pedestrian 20 feet, Cruise founder and CEO resigns

Cruise even bought a full-page ad in The New York Times declaring “human drivers are terrible” and holding up its driverless cars as the only solution. And Vogt confidently took the stage at an investor conference and said Cruise’s steering wheel- and pedal-less Origin shuttles were “just days away” from federal approval — despite no such approval pending. Vogt’s decision to step down, announced late Sunday, follows a recent recall of all 950 Cruise vehicles to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October. Vogt's decision to step down, announced late Sunday, follows a recent recall of all 950 Cruise vehicles to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October. Mary Barra, the General Motors chief executive, promoted Mo Elshenawy, who is executive vice-president of engineering at Cruise, to chief technology officer, after Vogt’s resignation, according to an internal email reported by TechCrunch. Kyle Vogt resigned as chief executive of General Motors Co.’s Cruise LLC weeks after the business lost its license to operate driverless cars in the state of California and paused most of its operations.

The company subsequently paused driverless operations nationwide, appointed a new chief safety officer, recalled all 950 of its vehicles, and retained an outside group to perform an independent safety audit. General Motors' automated driving division Cruise has suffered another blow as one of its founders departs. Formerly one of the leaders in driving automation, Cruise has been in a slump since one of its vehicles hit and dragged away a pedestrian in San Francisco. Morale at Cruise has been low since the October 2 incident, with employees pointing the finger at poor management that didn’t prioritize safety at the company. Without commercial permits to operate in San Francisco and an internal decision to pause its driverless fleets in other states, the company laid off contract workers, further deepening the malaise.

However, more layoffs are expected at the company that employs about 4,000 full-time employees. The Cruise Board understands and respects his decision to resign as CEO, and we wish him well in his next chapter. We continue to believe strongly in Cruise’s mission and the potential of its transformative technology as we look to make transportation safer, cleaner and more accessible. Kyle Vogt, the serial entrepreneur who co-founded and led Cruise from a startup in a garage through its acquisition and ownership by General Motors, has resigned, according to an email sent to employees Sunday evening that TechCrunch has viewed. A source familiar with the circumstances of Vogt's resignation said Vogt had informed the board of his decision to leave on Sunday after apologizing to staff for the company's problems in an email on Saturday. Vogt, 38, offered little in the way of explanation, stating simply "I have resigned from my position" in an email to staff viewed by Reuters on Sunday.

Vogt earlier said most collisions were caused by inattentive or impaired human drivers, not the AVs. In one serious incident in October, the human driver of another vehicle struck a pedestrian in San Francisco at night, tossing her into the path of a Cruise self-driving car, which then drove over and dragged her. Rather than sit back and let driverless cars come to them eventually, Barra insisted on GM staying in the driver’s seat. And now it has to deal with the fallout when that company’s “move fast and break things” culture has resulted in a crisis. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also launched a separate safety probe of the autonomous driving system in Cruise’s vehicles in December following a pair of rear-end crashes.

California officials accused Cruise of withholding key information and video after the accident, and the company's self-driving operations are on hold while federal authorities investigate. Barra reportedly told employees that GM general counsel Craig Glidden will serve as Cruise’s co-president alongside Mo Elshenawy, who will also become chief technology officer. Former Tesla president Jon McNeill, who’s been a board member at GM for several years, was named vice chairman of the Cruise board alongside Barra.

The accident, and the consequent licence revocation, was a significant setback for Cruise and for the autonomous driving industry. Companies are racing to develop software capable of driving cars in busy cities while also convincing regulators and the public that it can be safer than human drivers. San Francisco-based Cruise is seen as one of the most advanced autonomous driving companies in the world, and it had started charging passengers for journeys in some US cities. However, it paused all of its driverless cars on 26 October after California regulators revoked its licence to transport passengers without a driver after an accident on 2 October. Since then, the autonomous vehicles have drawn complaints for making unexpected, traffic-clogging stops that critics say threaten to inconvenience other travelers and imperil public safety. He argued that self-driving cars would lead to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities, using the example of a young girl killed in a San Francisco intersection to bolster his argument.

The agency said the vehicles "may engage in inappropriately hard braking or become immobilized." The accident on 2 October proved that driverless technology still has some way to go before it is rolled out more widely. Another car knocked a pedestrian into the path of a Cruise car, which initially stopped before driving another 6 metres (20ft), dragging the pedestrian along and seriously injuring her. Late last year, U.S. safety regulators said they were investigating reports that autonomous robotaxis run by Cruise can stop too quickly or unexpectedly quit moving, potentially stranding passengers. Former Tesla and Lyft executive Jon McNeill, a member of GM's board of directors since 2022, was appointed vice chairman of the self-driving unit's board after Vogt's resignation.