General Motors axes Cruise

The American car company will continue looking into self-driving tech, but the Cruise brand will be scrapped.

Ever since it was acquired, Cruise has been a liability for GM. It performed in the red from year to year and couldn’t entirely avoid road incidents, which hurt both its balance and its reputation. In 2023, a Cruise autonomous vehicle hit a pedestrian and proceeded to drag her under the wheels for 6 meters (20 feet) before stopping. The incident prompted a federal investigation, and while the woman survived with injuries, it was never explained why the car didn’t have a better failsafe in place.

The current employees of the company will be offered jobs in other departments of General Motors. The corporation says it will also continue to pursue the development of self-driving systems, but on a smaller scale now that Cruise is no more.