This major car brand is stopping everything to focus on autonomous vehicles

© Cruise

Like Waymo, the subsidiary of Alphabet (Google), General Motors has also developed a robotaxi service. Its subsidiary Cruise already offers autonomous car rides in the United States. But in a press release published this week, General Motors announced the end of this adventure. The car manufacturer is not abandoning autonomous cars, but is making a pivot. Instead of developing a robotaxi service, it will instead focus on developing 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, GM chairman and CEO. “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 for the future of transportation.”

General Motors' pivot is driven by the increasingly competitive robotaxis market, but also the resource-intensive nature of managing and expanding a robotaxis fleet.

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New Autonomous Driving Team

Today, General Motors owns 90% of Cruise's shares. The latter already has an agreement with investors to own 97%, and will buy back the remaining shares. Then, GM will restructure and combine Cruise's 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 on this subsidiary.

Otherwise, General Motors' decision could change the plans of Honda, which is also one of Cruise's investors. Indeed, the manufacturer had the ambition to deploy autonomous cars in Japan in 2026. However, these plans are now being reconsidered.

• Like Waymo, General Motors already offers robotaxis in the United States
• But the manufacturer has just announced a major 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, but plans to buy the remaining 10% to merge the Cruise team with its technical teams

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