The fallout from the crash has had significant repercussions for Cruise, with nine executives, including CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt, leaving the company. Cruise also laid off nearly a quarter of its employees in late 2023 and has paused its self-driving operations across the US. General Motors plans to cut spending on Cruise by hundreds of millions of dollars this year.
Key takeaways:
- A law firm's investigation into Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary, found that the company failed to fully disclose details about a serious crash in San Francisco to regulators.
- The incident, which involved an autonomous car dragging a pedestrian, led to the suspension of Cruise’s license to operate driverless vehicles in San Francisco.
- The report criticized Cruise's leadership for poor communication with regulators and a lack of transparency, and recommended the company take decisive steps to restore public trust.
- Technical issues with the self-driving car's software contributed to the dangerous incident, but Cruise claims these were corrected in a software recall in November. The company has paused its self-driving operations across the US since the crash.