mobile-menu-icon
GM Authority

No Cruise Origin Robotaxis Will Be Built In 2024

General Motors plans to build a grand total of zero units of its Cruise Origin autonomous vehicle during calendar year 2024 according to the latest statements from its driverless car subsidiary.

A few prototypes of the Origin will be built in the final weeks of 2023, Automotive News reports, presumably for use on private GM testing grounds, but neither prototypes nor production vehicles will roll off the assembly line next year.

Side view of the Cruise Origin.

GM has not revealed how many Origin units it produced this year or the exact number of additional prototypes it will complete before suspending production. The production halt currently has no end date, though the company has also made it clear that it is not outright discontinuing the autonomous vehicle (AV) model, at least at this point.

Earlier, former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt, who founded the robotaxi service but recently resigned, indicated several hundred Origin vehicles had already been built. Just a few months ago, Vogt was confident the Origin would get NHTSA approval for deployment on public streets. However, federal safety standards require manual steering controls and pedals, both of which are absent from the Origin’s standard design.

Front three quarters view of the Cruise Origin.

The Cruise Origin is designed to be the successor to the current Cruise AVs, small vehicles modified from Chevy Bolt EV units. Engineered from the ground up as an autonomous vehicle, it has a “friendly” looking, non-threatening rounded exterior with rather “pudgy” styling, sliding side doors, and facing bench seats for larger numbers of passengers.

The Origin is crucial to GM’s future robotaxi plans because it is a simpler design considerably reducing the number of components and therefore slashing production expense, at least when produced in large numbers. It is also made to be durable, reliable, and long-lived, helping to bring operating costs “below $1 per mile, the magic threshold at which robots actually become cheaper for most people than owning a car,” per former chief executive Vogt.

Concept images of the Cruise Origin.

As a reminder, the Origin is powered by Ultium Battery technology and motivated by Ultium Drive motors, while large-scale production, if and when it resumes, will take place at the Factory Zero plant.

Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM Cruise Origin news, GM Cruise news, GM AV news, GM production news, GM business news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.

Subscribe to GM Authority

For around-the-clock GM news coverage

We'll send you one email per day with the latest GM news. It's totally free.

Comments

  1. Wind turbine projects cancelled, solar farms cancelled, this is just another Biden administrations green energy strategy failure. Billions of taxpayer dollars being wastefully spent. The US can be energy independent and clean with the use of natural gas, fossil fuels and nuclear. If we would invest these billion in making natural gas, fossil fuels and nuclear cleaner it would turn our economy around, make us energy independent while continuing to protect our environment. Common sense people.

    Reply
  2. I know I won’t be riding in a robo taxis. No driver no ride in. That reminds me of the ” Johnny Cab ” 🚖 in the movie ” total recall” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    Reply
  3. That’s the end of the road for Cruise. Permanently.

    Reply
  4. Good ! Thank you Mr. Hall

    Reply
  5. Good decision to stop the unnecessary bleeding of cash.

    Reply
  6. Not just GM. Multi-Million $$$ suit against Tesla going forward. Woman engaged auto drive, 2 minutes later it drives itself under a turning semi and decapitates her.
    Orwellian State/Corporate control of your vehicle has issues . I’m shocked … SHOCKED !

    Reply
  7. All the time and money wasted. To bad there isn’t that kind of effort towards cars and hybrids.

    Reply
  8. Is anyone going to have to answer for these huge debacles within GM?
    I mean Bara keeps talking a HUGE Game against Tesla and her team cannot even figure out how to mass produce at least One BEV Model.
    This is so embarrassing thus far. How has nobody lost their job yet?
    And I am not one to typically call for anyone to lose their job but this is completely unacceptable.

    GM……Figure it ASAP our or become obsolete!!!

    I was for bailing out the auto sector back in 2008 but I will be totally against it in the Future. The ones that fail will have NOBODY to blame but themselves. Waited waaaaaaay too long to shift.
    Marry and the team thought Tesla was a Tech Company playing with Laptop batteries.
    Now she is running the so called Dinosaur Company and she still hasn’t caught wind that a massive asteroid is coming her way. What a compete disaster this monumental shift has been thus far.
    No wonder Warren Buffet dropped his entire GM portfolio.

    Reply
  9. Most people don’t want to ride a bus, ride a trolley car, ride a subway train, take a taxi, or call an Uber/Lyft. And for those that don’t mind or need to use these forms of transportation, why are they going to choose an driverless Origin over the other options?

    The Origin doesn’t bring anything to the table. Origin is a complete waste of time and money.

    Reply
  10. No way will i let it lock me in and make me the clot shot.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Cancel