GM abandons robotaxi operations derailed by accident

DETROIT

U.S. auto giant General Motors announced Tuesday it will abandon its robotaxi developments after an incident last year stymied its progress in the autonomous vehicle field.

The company plans to merge the Cruise robotaxi vehicle unit with GM's technical teams to concentrate on developing advanced driver assistance systems for personal vehicles, a statement said.

The company said it abandoned the Cruise project "given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market."

GM bought the Cruise startup in 2016 and has since spent billions of dollars to make the operation viable.

Honda, an investor in Cruise, had planned to launch a robotaxi service in Japan in 2026, but the Japanese group will now "reassess the project's future and make necessary adjustments."

The halt of operations comes a year after Cruise was forced to suspend all operations in San Francisco after one of its self-driving cars dragged a woman who had first been hit by a hit-and-run driver.

Cruise's exit confirms Waymo as the dominant player in the business, which was valued at $45 bln after a fundraising round in October, according to Bloomberg.

The company has been expanding its reach and currently runs robotaxi fleets in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles and is planning to offer services in Atlanta and Austin.

Amazon's Zoox meanwhile is conducting robotaxi testing in California and Las Vegas, while Elon Musk recently unveiled what he said was a robotaxi capable of self-driving, predicting it would be available by 2027.