GM discontinues Cruise, Archer defence + $430M and WTP for AAMs
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GM pivots Cruise: from robotaxis to personal autonomous vehicles.?
In a surprise move, GM will shut down Cruise as an autonomous vehicles unit and will integrate the Cruise team into existing GM ADAS development of the hands-off eyes-off ‘Super Cruise’. In a statement, GM said: “the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market”.?
I would look at that 1st part of the sentence more closely - in the past automakers believed that robotaxis would replace private cars - today it is more likely that private cars with L2+/L3 ADAS will dominate the roads for the coming years. GM is a publicly traded automaker with high sensitivity to bottom line results (tech companies are often less sensitive), and this move not only saves $1 billion annually (Cruise cost GM $3.48 billion in 2023), but also aligns the tech development more closely with the new usw-case reality. Remember, that Ford and VW shut down Argo AI back in October 2022, in a move similar to that of GMs.?
Competition wise, this leaves Waymo, Zoox and Tesla as the main US-based competitors, with today only Waymo leading scaled robotaxi operations.?
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Great article !
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2 个月It's fascinating to see how the tides of technology can shift so dramatically in such a short span. Just yesterday, the race was all about revolutionary robotaxis driving us to a future free of personal vehicle ownership, and today, it seems the market is pulling an about-face. GM’s pivot to integrate Cruise into its existing ADAS framework makes sense—after all, why chase trends when you can focus on proven technology? It’s a classic case of “better the devil you know,” and the reality is that most drivers are still attached to the good old steering wheel. The competitive landscape is tightening, and with Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla leading the charge, we might just be looking at a game where every player must adapt rapidly or risk ending up in the slow lane. I’ll be keeping an eye on this lane change; it’s bound to come with some exhilarating twists and turns.