GM, Investing 14 Trillion Won and Withdrawing RoboTaxi... Cutting Workforce by Half

American automaker General Motors (GM) has effectively withdrawn from the robotaxi business and plans to cut about half of the related employees, Bloomberg reported on the 4th (local time), citing an internal notice.

According to the report, Craig Glidden, CEO and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of GM's autonomous driving subsidiary Cruise, informed employees in an email on the same day that Cruise would reduce its workforce by about half.

Glidden CAO also stated that many executives, including CEO Mark Whitten, plan to resign within this week.

GM had declared its effective withdrawal from the business last December by announcing it would halt new investments in Cruise, citing intensified competition in the robotaxi market.

Reuters Yonhap News

GM acquired the robotaxi startup Cruise in 2016 and has invested more than $10 billion (approximately 14.5 trillion won) to date. Industry analysts suggest that Tesla, a leader in autonomous driving technology, announcing its entry into the robotaxi market with the unveiling of the 'Cybercap' last October, may have influenced GM's decision to exit the business.

GM released a statement on the same day, announcing that it has completed the process of acquiring all remaining shares of Cruise, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. Additionally, GM explained that Cruise's autonomous driving technology will be integrated into GM-manufactured vehicles' autonomous driving system, 'Super Cruise,' going forward.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.