GM’s autonomous driving company, Cruise, is shifting gears and buildings its future around the Chevy Bolt, instead of the company’s own Origin EV.
Cruise has had a difficult year, suspending operations following a high-profile incident in which one of its taxis ran over a pedestrian that had already been hit by another driver. The company has experienced layoffs, executive turnover, and temporarily paused operations to address its issues.
In GM’s latest quarterly earnings, CEO Mary Barra revealed that Cruise plans to simplify its operations by moving forward with the Chevy Bolt.
As you know, Cruise has returned to the road in Houston, Phoenix and Dallas and we recently made several significant leadership appointments, including hiring Marc Whitten as CEO. Marc has decades of experience on the frontlines of technology transformations.
The Cruise team will also simplify their path to scale by focusing their next autonomous vehicle on the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt, instead of the Origin. This addresses the regulatory uncertainty we faced with the Origin because of its unique design. In addition, per-unit costs will be much lower, which will help Cruise optimize its resources.
As I hope you can see from our results, our new products, the progress at Cruise and our higher guidance, we are making the most of every opportunity.
Interestingly, while the Origin was designed as a true driverless vehicle—with no traditional driver controls—the Bolt is a more traditional vehicle. Unless GM and Cruise intend to heavily modify the next-gen Bolt, this would seem to indicate that Cruise is abandoning its plans to focus on autonomous vehicles that lack steering wheels, pedals, and other traditional controls.
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