GMs Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt resigns from company

Table Of Content

• Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles
• GM’s Cruise CEO resigns amid concerns over driverless car safety
• Ford unleashes the UK’s first legal hands-free drive car – but who will buy it?
• Honda and Nissan join forces on electric car technology to chase Chinese rivals
• UK new car sales reach highest February figure in 20 years

Vogt's departure likely stems from the Oct. 2 incident wherein a Cruise AV dragged away a pedestrian knocked into the vehicle's path by a hit-and-run. Cruise did not disclose that its vehicle had dragged the pedestrian 20 feet under the car while initially corresponding with regulators. When this information came to light, California suspended Cruise's permit to operate driverless vehicles on public streets. Problems at Cruise could slow the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles that carry passengers without human drivers on board. It also could bring stronger federal regulation of the vehicles, which are carrying passengers in more cities nationwide.

Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles

Vogt earlier said most collisions were caused by inattentive or impaired human drivers, not the AVs. In one serious incident in October, the human driver of another vehicle struck a pedestrian in San Francisco at night, tossing her into the path of a Cruise self-driving car, which then drove over and dragged her. Rather than sit back and let driverless cars come to them eventually, Barra insisted on GM staying in the driver’s seat. And now it has to deal with the fallout when that company’s “move fast and break things” culture has resulted in a crisis. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also launched a separate safety probe of the autonomous driving system in Cruise’s vehicles in December following a pair of rear-end crashes.

GM’s Cruise CEO resigns amid concerns over driverless car safety

The DMV action came three weeks after a Cruise vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco. A woman entered a crosswalk at nighttime and was hit by two cars, the second of which was the Cruise vehicle. First, a Nissan Sentra "tragically struck and propelled the pedestrian into the path of the AV," Cruise said in a description of the incident.

Ford unleashes the UK’s first legal hands-free drive car – but who will buy it?

As a result, California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s permit to operate driverless cars in the state. A video, which TechCrunch viewed a day after the incident, showed the robotaxi braking aggressively and coming to a stop over the woman. The DMV’s order of suspension stated that Cruise withheld about seven seconds of video footage, which showed the robotaxi then attempting to pull over and subsequently dragging the woman 20 feet. Kyle Vogt, one of Cruise's two founders and later its CEO, declared Sunday on X that he had quit the company a decade after starting it.

Honda and Nissan join forces on electric car technology to chase Chinese rivals

Cruise's woes are also a setback for an industry dependent on public trust and the cooperation of regulators. The unit had in recent months touted ambitious plans to expand to more cities, offering fully autonomous taxi rides. Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt has resigned from his role at the autonomous vehicle venture owned by General Motors, according to a company statement sent to CNBC on Sunday. In 2020, he presided over the rollout of the Origin, the company’s first purpose-built autonomous vehicle. Under his leadership, the company acquired rival AV startup Voyage and raised enough investment to bring its valuation up to $30 billion. And earlier this year, he outlined a plan to scale up Cruise’s fleet to 1 million vehicles by 2030.

Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles - The Associated Press

Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety questions, recalls of self-driving vehicles.

Posted: Sun, 19 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Cruise also paused operations of its "supervised" AV fleet thereafter, which seemingly returned to service this month according to the company blog. However, employee morale at Cruise remains low according to TechCrunch, which reports the company has yet to find a replacement CEO and has laid off contracted workers. Vogt sent out an email Saturday saying that certain employees could sell a limited number of shares in a one-time opportunity. Vogt didn’t provide many details but said the company was developing a plan to conduct a new tender offer to provide restricted stock unit liquidity to mitigate potential tax implications. Dan Kan, who co-founded Cruise with Vogt and held a far less public-facing role, has also resigned, TechCrunch has confirmed with sources familiar with the matter. "We continue to believe strongly in Cruise's mission and the potential of its transformative technology as we look to make transportation safer, cleaner and more accessible," she said.

However, more layoffs are expected at the company that employs about 4,000 full-time employees. The Cruise Board understands and respects his decision to resign as CEO, and we wish him well in his next chapter. We continue to believe strongly in Cruise’s mission and the potential of its transformative technology as we look to make transportation safer, cleaner and more accessible. Kyle Vogt, the serial entrepreneur who co-founded and led Cruise from a startup in a garage through its acquisition and ownership by General Motors, has resigned, according to an email sent to employees Sunday evening that TechCrunch has viewed. A source familiar with the circumstances of Vogt's resignation said Vogt had informed the board of his decision to leave on Sunday after apologizing to staff for the company's problems in an email on Saturday. Vogt, 38, offered little in the way of explanation, stating simply "I have resigned from my position" in an email to staff viewed by Reuters on Sunday.

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Earlier this year, John Krafcik announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Waymo after helping lead the company since 2015. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on October 16 opened an investigation into Cruise vehicles after receiving reports of two pedestrian injuries, including the October 2 incident. The Cruise cars "may not have exercised appropriate caution around pedestrians in the roadway," the agency said.

Vogt resigns as CEO of Cruise following safety concerns over self-driving vehicles

The company subsequently paused driverless operations nationwide, appointed a new chief safety officer, recalled all 950 of its vehicles, and retained an outside group to perform an independent safety audit. General Motors' automated driving division Cruise has suffered another blow as one of its founders departs. Formerly one of the leaders in driving automation, Cruise has been in a slump since one of its vehicles hit and dragged away a pedestrian in San Francisco. Morale at Cruise has been low since the October 2 incident, with employees pointing the finger at poor management that didn’t prioritize safety at the company. Without commercial permits to operate in San Francisco and an internal decision to pause its driverless fleets in other states, the company laid off contract workers, further deepening the malaise.

Kyle Vogt has resigned as CEO of Cruise, General Motors’ autonomous vehicle unit, as questions build about the safety of self-driving cars. Kyle Vogt has resigned as CEO of Cruise, General Motors' autonomous vehicle unit, as questions build about the safety of self-driving cars. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) last month suspended Cruise's permits for autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing. Cruise subsequently announced a "pause" of all of its driverless operations in the US, which includes San Francisco, Austin, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, and Miami.

Cruise even bought a full-page ad in The New York Times declaring “human drivers are terrible” and holding up its driverless cars as the only solution. And Vogt confidently took the stage at an investor conference and said Cruise’s steering wheel- and pedal-less Origin shuttles were “just days away” from federal approval — despite no such approval pending. Vogt’s decision to step down, announced late Sunday, follows a recent recall of all 950 Cruise vehicles to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October. Vogt's decision to step down, announced late Sunday, follows a recent recall of all 950 Cruise vehicles to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October. Mary Barra, the General Motors chief executive, promoted Mo Elshenawy, who is executive vice-president of engineering at Cruise, to chief technology officer, after Vogt’s resignation, according to an internal email reported by TechCrunch. Kyle Vogt resigned as chief executive of General Motors Co.’s Cruise LLC weeks after the business lost its license to operate driverless cars in the state of California and paused most of its operations.

Ammann, a former investment banker, began leading Cruise in 2019 after serving as GM's president and chief financial officer before that. "I suspect at least one more high level exec will have to resign — anyone who made the call to obfuscate or omit information in communication with the California DMV," he said. "In my opinion, Cruise has been too slow in taking steps to rebuild trust with staff, regulators and the public. Executive departures are table stakes." Vogt expressed optimism about Cruise's future without him, saying the team is "executing on a solid, multi-year roadmap and an exciting product vision."

The accident, and the consequent licence revocation, was a significant setback for Cruise and for the autonomous driving industry. Companies are racing to develop software capable of driving cars in busy cities while also convincing regulators and the public that it can be safer than human drivers. San Francisco-based Cruise is seen as one of the most advanced autonomous driving companies in the world, and it had started charging passengers for journeys in some US cities. However, it paused all of its driverless cars on 26 October after California regulators revoked its licence to transport passengers without a driver after an accident on 2 October. Since then, the autonomous vehicles have drawn complaints for making unexpected, traffic-clogging stops that critics say threaten to inconvenience other travelers and imperil public safety. He argued that self-driving cars would lead to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities, using the example of a young girl killed in a San Francisco intersection to bolster his argument.

Vogt's resignation comes roughly two years after he was reappointed as CEO, following an unexpected departure by Dan Ammann, a former GM executive, in December 2021. According to its most recent quarterly update, GM has lost roughly $1.9 billion on Cruise between January and September 2023, including $732 million in the third quarter alone. In October 2021, GM said it expected "new businesses" such as Cruise and its BrightDrop commercial EV business to grow from $2 billion to $80 billion during that timeframe. In orders of suspension the California DMV issued to Cruise, the regulators accused the company of failing to give a transparent account of what happened during the pedestrian collision. GM didn’t provide a reason for Ammann’s departure except to say he was leaving to “pursue other opportunities.” A spokesperson for Cruise declined to provide any additional comment.