Not Yet Kapok, Robotaxi General Motors Cruise Unit Plans To Return To Operation

Robotaxi Cruise. (Doc. Cruise)

JAKARTA - Cruise's robotaxi General Motors unit last week halted all supervised and manual car trips in the United States while expanding security reviews on robotaxi.

However, as a result of this termination, it caused chaos within the company and forced CEO Kyle Vogt and chief product officer Daniel Kan to resign earlier this week.

The latest news reported by Reuters on November 22 revealed that Cruise plans to re-launch its services in one city without being named before expanding to other cities.

The new decision comes just weeks after California banned Cruise's autonomous vehicles from being on public roads following last month's crash.

"With steps to improve our safety culture and rebuild trust, our strategy is to re-launch in one city and prove our performance there, before expanding," the company said in a statement.

Before Cruise stopped operations, GM CEO Mary Barra said that Cruise and its autonomous vehicle technology could generate $50 billion in revenue by 2030, making the robotaxi business a big part of the company's strategy to increase revenue to $280 billion.

Diketahui, akibat berbagai masalah yang dihadapi, GM kehilangan lebih dari 700 juta dolar AS akibat Cruise pada kuartal ketiga tahun ini dan lebih dari 8 miliar dolar AS sejak tahun 2016.

Meanwhile, on the one hand GM faced many problems ranging from higher labor costs under the new contract with United Auto Workers, then sales of electric vehicles were slower than expected, and new high emission standards from the US government.

Back to the city where Robotaxi will resume operations, it is confirmed not San Francisco, where the accident occurred.

Cruise has operations in Phoenix and Austin, where regulators are more willing to work together. The competitor, Waymo, also has extensive operations in those cities.