GM to refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles
GM intends to combine the majority-owned Cruise LLC and GM technical teams into a single effort to advance autonomous and assisted driving.
DETROIT - General Motors (NYSE: GM) plans to realign its autonomous driving strategy and prioritize development of advanced driver assistance systems on a path to fully autonomous personal vehicles. GM will build on the progress of Super Cruise, the company's hands-off, eyes-on driving feature, now offered on more than 20 GM vehicle models and currently logging over 10 million miles per month.
GM intends to combine the majority-owned Cruise LLC and GM technical teams into a single effort to advance autonomous and assisted driving. Consistent with GM's capital allocation priorities, GM will no longer fund Cruise's robotaxi development work given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.
"GM is committed to delivering the best driving experiences to our customers in a disciplined and capital efficient manner," said Mary Barra, chair and CEO of GM. "Cruise has been an early innovator in autonomy, and the deeper integration of our teams, paired with GM's strong brands, scale, and manufacturing strength, will help advance our vision for the future of transportation."
"As the largest U.S. automotive manufacturer, we're fully committed to autonomous driving and excited to bring GM customers its benefits - things like enhanced safety, improved traffic flow, increased accessibility, and reduced driver stress," said Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering.
GM, which owns about 90% of Cruise, has agreements with other shareholders that will raise its ownership to more than 97%. The company will pursue the acquisition of the remaining shares. Contingent upon the repurchase of these shares and Cruise board approval, GM will work with the Cruise leadership team to restructure and refocus Cruise's operations. GM expects the restructuring to lower spending by more than $1 billion annually after the proposed plan is completed, expected in the first half of 2025.
GM will host a conference call for analysts at 4:30 p.m. ET featuring GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra, Executive Vice President and CFO Paul Jacobson, and David Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering.
Conference call details are as follows:
1-800-857-9821 (U.S.)
1-517-308-9481 (international/caller-paid)
Conference call passcode: General Motors
An audio replay will be available in the Events Section of the GM Investor Relations website.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM's Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry's widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.
Featured Product
Midwest Motion Products is a leading provider of robust and reliable Motion Control Products.
MMP specializes in supplying high-quality Brushed & Brushless DC Motors & Gearmotors for Robotics and Automation Equipment with a wide range of motor windings and gear ratios. With an impressive track record of more than 8,000 released DC Gearmotors designs and over 2,000,000 individual part numbers, we are renowned for our ability to handle large-scale orders. Due to our huge on-hand inventory, we are also well known for lightning-fast delivery of our standard products. We take pride in our dedicated customer service and our team of knowledgeable sales and engineering experts who are ready to assist you with custom design solutions tailored to your specific application. Additionally, we also offer a wide range of complimentary products, such as DC Motor Controls, DC Linear Actuators, AC-DC power Supplies, and DC Servo Amplifiers and others.