Cruise could face up to $1.5 million in fines and additional sanctions over the accident, in which a pedestrian was dragged by one of its robotaxis. The company has stopped taking questions from staff at meetings and plans to conduct layoffs later this month. Despite these challenges, the company's chief administrative officer, Craig Glidden, expressed confidence that Cruise will emerge as a stronger company.
Key takeaways:
- General Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is under pressure after failing to fully disclose details of an October accident, leading to a pause in all operations and the stepping down of its CEO and chief product officer.
- Newly installed Cruise president, Mo Elshenawy, acknowledged the company's approach to developing self-driving cars has been 'wrong' and that they need to perform significantly better than human drivers across a wider spectrum of use cases.
- Cruise could face $1.5 million in fines and additional sanctions over its failure to disclose details surrounding the accident, and has been ordered to appear at a Feb. 6 hearing by the California Public Utilities Commission.
- The company is conducting a safety review, has pulled all of its vehicles off public U.S. roads, and is expected to conduct layoffs later this month.