Cruise Operating Costs To Be Reduced By Hundreds Of Millions

GM Authority recently reported that General Motors was looking to scale back its ambitions for Cruise, which included a reduced operating budget. Now, the Detroit-based automaker has officially announced that the self-driving subsidiary’s budget has been drastically cut.

Although more in-depth details were expected to be announced during General Motors’ business update on November 29^th, 2023, GM CFO Paul Jacobson did mention that spending on Cruise would decrease by hundreds of millions of dollars in 2024. This may come as no surprise to some, as Cruise AVs will only be operating in a single city once things get back in order.

It’s worth noting that the exact city where the Cruise AV units will resume operations has yet to be disclosed.

While the lack of detailed Cruise-related news is unfortunate, GM CEO Mary Barra claimed that updates regarding the autonomous driving company will be announced once The General receives the results of its independent investigation.

However, Barra did mention that General Motors and Cruise have already found synergies between themselves that serve to reduce costs. Interestingly, these synergies have been found since the Detroit-based automaker hired Mike Abbott as the Executive Vice President of software.

Of course, GM Authority will be sure to keep you in the loop as more details emerge.

As a reminder, this debacle began when a pedestrian was unintentionally trapped underneath a Cruise AV unit after being struck by a human-driven vehicle back in early October 2023. Since then, Cruise has been hit with one repercussion after another, including an NHTSA investigation and California DMV driverless permit suspension.

Following the backlash, Cruise has taken steps to address the pedestrian incident directly. For starters, all Cruise AV rides – manual and supervised – have been suspended as the company expands investigations into its analysis of the incident, along with a recall to update the collision detection system in its robotaxi units.

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