GM’s Cruise to cut 1,000 jobs as robotaxi service shuts down

DETROIT – General Motors is cutting almost half of the workforce in its Cruise driverless car unit, according to an internal memo and people familiar with the matter, part of a previously announced plan to halt robotaxi service and absorb the operations into its broader business.

Several of Cruise’s leaders, including chief executive officer Marc Whitten, will leave this week in the overhaul, the company revealed on Feb 4 in an e-mail to employees sent by president Craig Glidden. The total staff reductions amount to about 1,000 positions, said the people.

The move to gut the staff punctuates GM’s rapid retreat from the robotaxi business and strategic shift on self-driving cars. As recently as late 2024, the company had been planning to take the driver out of its cars and charge fares in Texas in the first quarter of 2025. 

GM made an abrupt change in December, saying it would no longer pursue robotaxi development, citing increasing competition and “the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business”. The carmaker plans to continue pursuing driver-assistance technology for use in consumer automobiles. 

With Cruise goes the company’s aspiration of using robotaxi fares to help double revenue by 2030. Instead, GM will focus its cash and resources on share buybacks and its electric vehicle business, which remains a priority even as US President Donald Trump threatens to end consumer tax credits for EVs. GM said recently that its actions with Cruise would save about US$500 million (S$676 million) in 2025 and twice as much in subsequent years.

The Detroit-based carmaker may need to preserve its cash. Mr Trump has promised tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which produce a significant portion of the vehicles GM sells in the US.

For GM, shuttering Cruise as a standalone business ends what was not only an expensive venture that cost more than US$10 billion, but one that also led to regulatory and reputational trouble. Cruise had resumed testing and operations after an incident in 2023 in which one of its cars dragged and injured a pedestrian. That led to investigations by federal agencies and in California. The company grounded the fleet, cut 25 per cent of the staff and saw the departure of founder Kyle Vogt.

Alphabet’s Waymo remains one of the only prominent robotaxi companies still operating in the US, along with May Mobility, a Michigan start-up funded partly by Toyota Motor. BLOOMBERG