Ever since the October 2023 incident where a pedestrian was trapped and dragged underneath a Cruise AV unit after being struck by a human-driven vehicle, GM’s robotaxi company has been on a bit of a downward spiral, with co-founders Kyle Vogt and Daniel Kan resigning from their positions, followed by a massive 24-percent staff cut. Now, Cruise has also fired several company leaders as a result of its ongoing investigation into the aforementioned accident.
According to a report from Automotive News, a few of the departures include COO Gil West and Chief Legal Officer Jeff Bleich, along with Cruise Head of Government Affairs David Estrada and Vice-President of Global Affairs Prashanthi Raman.
“As a company, we are committed to full transparency and rebuilding trust, and operating at the highest standard when it comes to safety, integrity and accountability,” Cruise co-president Craig Glidden claimed in a prepared statement via the messaging app Slack. “As a result, we believe new leadership is necessary to achieve these goals.”
As a reminder, the aforementioned pedestrian accident has led to one repercussion after another, including an NHTSA investigation and California DMV driverless permit suspension.
To its credit, Cruise has taken several measures to address this publicity nightmare. All Cruise AV rides – both manual and supervised – have been suspended as the company expands its previously-mentioned investigation into its analysis of the incident, as well as a recall to update the collision detection system in its robotaxi units, which now provides provisions in the event of another pedestrian-related incident.
As Cruise continues to attempt to regain the general public’s and federal government’s trust, it eventually hopes to restart its ride-sharing endeavors in a single, yet-unnamed, city.
“The personnel decisions made today are a necessary step for Cruise to move forward as it focuses on accountability, trust and transparency,”a General Motors spokesperson stated. “GM remains committed to supporting Cruise in these efforts.”
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Comments
They should fire Mary as well.
Curious, so should Sundar also be fired? Alphabet has not suspended their AV’s and I think there is one other AV company still operating. And lest we forget Musk’s FSD. Should he also be fired? His AV system has certainly had gruesome deaths. But no, fire the woman. A woman could not possibly run a car company.
No, fire the incompetent. Ask yourself, if the CEO of gm was a man instead of a woman since 2015, would he have been fired by now
Amazing Mary is still there. She is the worst CEO of any company since Marissa Mayer.
Cruise; here today and gone tomorrow. And nobody cares.
Cruise…….A nice thought but maybe in another 50 years.
Right up there with “Imaginary Money” !
What could possibly go wrong ?
To tell the truth, GMs autonomous driving system is better than Tesla’s. But GM was reaching too far with Cruise, which obviously need more time to develop and mature.