Kyle Vogt Resigns As CEO Of GMs Cruise Robotaxi Unit
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"The results of our ongoing reviews will inform additional next steps as we work to build a better Cruise centered around safety, transparency and trust," the company said in a statement. "We will continue to advance AV technology in service of our mission to make transportation safer, cleaner and more accessible." The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on October 16 opened an investigation into Cruise vehicles after receiving reports of two pedestrian injuries, including the October 2 incident.
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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.
Cruise CEO and co-founder resigns after self-driving cars suspended in California
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.
Cruise’s C.E.O. Quits as the Driverless Carmaker Aims to Rebuild Trust
"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.
Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles
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.
Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety concerns over 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.
Kyle Vogt resigns as CEO of GM's Cruise - UPI News
Kyle Vogt resigns as CEO of GM's Cruise.
Posted: Mon, 20 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
But in truth, Uber’s failed effort to launch driverless cars turned out to be way more instructive. Rather than sit back and let driverless cars come to them eventually, Barra insisted on GM staying in the driver’s seat. And now it has to deal with the fallout when that company’s “move fast and break things” culture has resulted in a crisis.
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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.
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.
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.
A battle arose between the city and both Cruise and its competitor Waymo, but both companies seemed to be doing okay, because the city does not have jurisdiction over driving—that belongs to the state of California. In October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the company's operating permit, citing concerns about risks to public safety. The agency alleged the self-driving-car company, which reportedly had roughly 400 cars operating in San Francisco, withheld video of a Cruise robotaxi dragging a person down a street. Later that month, Cruise suspended operations across all of its fleets and said it was working to strengthen public trust. He argued that self-driving cars would lead to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities, using the example of a young girl killed in a San Francisco intersection to bolster his argument. Cruise even bought a full-page ad in The New York Times declaring “human drivers are terrible” and holding up its driverless cars as the only solution.
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.
This probably arose from fear of the public’s instinct to look at incidents rather than statistics, but in the end it was not sustainable. When the dragging incident happened, they worked hard to get out the message that another driver was at fault. That’s an unsurprising desire, since any company lives in fear of the crashes where they are at fault. Somehow this led to the non-disclosure of the mistake their software did make in this incident. While we haven’t seen the final data after the flurry of incidents Cruise engendered after they expanded service, they might or might not have reached a level that would be deemed unacceptable.
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