通用汽车表示，General Motors announced that its autonomous vehicle division, Cruise, will exit the Siasun Robot&Automation taxi business, primarily due to the time and resources required to expand the Business and the increasingly fierce competition in the Siasun Robot&Automation taxi market—this decision comes at a time when Alphabet's Waymo is expanding into more cities and Tesla plans to launch its Siasun Robot&Automation taxi service in 2026.
As competition in autonomous taxi services becomes increasingly fierce, General Motors has withdrawn.
On Tuesday, General Motors announced that its autonomous vehicle division, Cruise, will exit the robot taxi business. Cruise will merge with General Motors' technology team and focus on developing autonomous driving and advanced driver safety technologies.
General Motors stated that due to the time and resources required to expand the business, along with the fierce competition in the robot taxi market, it will no longer provide funding for robot taxi development in the future. This move comes as Alphabet's Waymo expands into more cities, and Tesla plans to launch its robot taxi service in 2026.
Previously, General Motors CEO Mary Barra had aimed to double the company's revenue by 2030, which included achieving $50 billion in revenue through Cruise. However, without the fare income from the robot taxi business, this goal has become even more elusive.
Analysts believe that terminating robot taxi development is expected to save General Motors over $1 billion in costs annually, allowing the company to focus more on its core business of manufacturing and selling cars. In the context of constantly evolving autonomous driving technology, by concentrating on core operations and technological innovation, General Motors may secure a place in the future automotive market.
This withdrawal also ends a turbulent period for Cruise. Previously, due to a traffic accident that injured a pedestrian, Cruise faced severe regulatory penalties, with California revoking its passenger-carrying and charging permits, and the company temporarily suspended its fleet operations nationwide. Shortly after the accident, Cruise's founder Kyle Vogt resigned, the company then laid off nine executives and cut 25% of its workforce.
It has been reported that General Motors will also repurchase the shareholder equity of Cruise, increasing its stake in Cruise from 90% to over 97% through agreements with other shareholders. In Post-Market Trading, General Motors' stock price rose nearly 2%.
