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

Table Of Content

• Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt resigns from GM-owned robotaxi unit
• Satnavs and Google Maps to be updated in readiness for driverless cars
• Kyle Vogt, Cruise CEO, resigns after safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles
• Self-driving car users could watch films on motorway under new DfT proposals
• Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles
• GM’s Cruise CEO resigns amid concerns over driverless car safety
• Armed with traffic cones, protesters are immobilizing driverless cars
• Products

Toyota’s vision for a futuristic city teeming with self-driving cars has been significantly delayed. In 2022, AV investments went down nearly 60 percent year over year as startups struggled through layoffs or outright closures. This caps a stunning month for Cruise and Vogt, who founded the company as a startup then sold it to GM. For a period, GM had appointed Dan Ammamn as CEO of Cruise, but he left in a conflict with Mary Barra, CEO of GM, over Cruise’s plans and IPO potential, and Vogt returned to the role (while continuing as CTO). Under Vogt’s returned leadership, Cruise underwent a rapid expansion, deploying live service to the public in multiple cities and announcing several more that would go live soon. It also expanded service in San Francisco from evening only to all day.

Kyle Vogt Resigns As CEO Of GM’s Cruise Robotaxi Unit - Forbes

Kyle Vogt Resigns As CEO Of GM’s Cruise Robotaxi Unit.

Posted: Sun, 19 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt resigns from GM-owned robotaxi unit

GM took interest and acquired the company in March 2016 in a deal of cash and stock valued at more than $1 billion. Kyle Vogt, a founder and chief executive of Cruise, the driverless car subsidiary of General Motors, resigned on Sunday, less than a month after Cruise suspended all autonomous operations after a series of traffic mishaps. Cruise won approval to transport fare-paying passengers last year.

Satnavs and Google Maps to be updated in readiness for driverless cars

"Today I resigned from my position as CEO of Cruise," co-founder Kyle Vogt wrote in a post on twitter.com. "The startup I launched in my garage has given over 250,000 driverless rides across several cities, with each ride inspiring people with a small taste of the future," he also wrote. GM executives, including CEO and Chair Mary Barra, had hoped the startup would be ramping up a driverless transportation network this year, and hoped Cruise would play a notable role in doubling the company's revenue by 2030. Vogt wanted Cruise to dominate the market much in the same way that Uber dominated Lyft.

Kyle Vogt, Cruise CEO, resigns after safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles

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." It’s unclear, but GM has already tightened the reins by signaling that layoffs would be coming. Cruise has already laid off many of the contract workers who do maintenance and fleet operations for the company.

Self-driving car users could watch films on motorway under new DfT proposals

The San Francisco Fire Department accused them of blocking an ambulance, delaying the journey of a patient to hospital, where they died. The department had to walk that back when video recordings showed this rather nasty accusation to be false. Both Waymo and Cruise have to be thankful for their video records which have also shown the reality of situations where accusers had poor perception, or possibly were slandering. Hard as it is, in the end we should pay attention to statistics, and Cruise has good statistics.

Founder and CEO of GM’s self-driving car unit resigns in wake of safety problems - CNN

Founder and CEO of GM’s self-driving car unit resigns in wake of safety problems.

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

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. Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt has resigned from his role at the autonomous vehicle venture owned by General Motors, according to a company statement sent to CNBC on Sunday. 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 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. The company recalled nearly 1,000 vehicles to update their software after the incident.

GM’s Cruise CEO resigns amid concerns over driverless car safety

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) last month suspended Cruise's permits for autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing. Cruise subsequently announced a "pause" of all of its driverless operations in the US, which includes San Francisco, Austin, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, and Miami. 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. Even so, Cruise’s problems are a lesson for the industry and for society. In fact, it offers a guarantee, because if the companies can’t demonstrate that they are a fair bit safer than human drivers, they will get shut down, and permanently.

By Andrew J. Hawkins, transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Alphabet is still founder-led, though much less so than before, and even less so at Waymo, though one of the CEOs is from the original Google Car team. Zoox lost one of its two founders but has the other in the CTO role. In spite of its mistakes, Cruise has also been the subject of unfair treatment.

The Cruise cars "may not have exercised appropriate caution around pedestrians in the roadway," the agency said. Another Cruise robotaxi hit a fire truck in San Francisco in August. 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. 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.

It all came to a head after a serious incident which began when an unknown human hit-and-run driver hit a jaywalking pedestrian while traveling in the lane next to a Cruise vehicle. The victim was bounced off the first car and into the lane in front of the Cruise, which could not avoid hitting her, though it tried to stop. That would have been unfortunate, but with no fault to Cruise, except for what happened next.

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. Vogt’s fall is also sad because it is founder-led companies which are often the real movers and shakers in the world. It will not have somebody at the helm who can make things happen in the company not simply because they have authority from the board of directors, but because they are the person who brought the company to where it is. That’s amazingly important, especially in a startup or a company trying to do what has never been done before.

The last 10 years have been amazing, and I’m grateful to everyone who helped Cruise along the way. The startup I launched in my garage has given over 250,000 driverless rides across several cities, with each ride inspiring people with a small taste of the future. The resignation is a stunning fall from prominence for one of the tech industry’s most outspoken champions of self-driving cars. He leaves behind a company in deep crisis and an industry that is confronting increased public and regulatory scrutiny. The DMV accused Cruise of being misleading, and so pulled their permit to operate in California.

However, more layoffs are expected at the company that employs about 4,000 full-time employees. 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. Kyle Vogt, a founder of Cruise, resigned from the company on Sunday, weeks after it suspended all of its self-driving operations. General Motors' self-driving-car unit, Cruise, is shaking up its leadership after the company lost permits needed to operate in California and paused its operations. Vogt confirmed his resignation Sunday night in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In the intervening period, a number of damaging leaks and revelations have come out of the company. Morale is reportedly extremely low, as can be seen by how frequently staff are leaking internal information. 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. On Monday, co-founder and Chief Product Officer Daniel Kan also resigned, the company 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. Employee discontent was further inflamed last week when Cruise suspended its employee share-selling program for the fourth quarter.

While we delay it, drunks and others will continue the carnage we are used to. This, however, is not all (or even most) of what sunk Vogt and Cruise with the DMV. When Cruise offered reports on this incident to the press (including myself) and the DMV, they did not mention the dragging after the vehicle had stopped. The DMV states they were not shown the video of this dragging, though Cruise insists they were shown it multiple times. However, a written statement from Cruise to the DMV the morning after the crash omitted this very important detail. This was also the case in my discussions with Cruise—while I asked the video be stopped before the incident, I asked a number of questions that should have elicited information about the dragging, but did not.