General Motors has killed off its self-driving taxi business

General Motors has announced its intention to kill off its self-driving Cruise taxi business citing “an increasingly competitive robotaxi market”.

It follows the recent October reveal of Tesla’s much hyped and anticipated Robotaxi – a car with no steering wheel, no pedals, only two seats and a projected price tag of $30k.

Instead, GM will use its money to expand and develop its ‘Super Cruise’ self-driving technology for its passenger cars.

“Consistent with GM’s capital allocation priorities, GM will no longer fund Cruise’s robotaxi development work given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business,” said a GM statement.

What it will do is as follows: it currently owns about 90 per cent of Cruise, and will look to raise its ownership to 97 per cent… after which it’ll look to “restructure and refocus Cruise’s operations”.

GM reckons the eventual restructure would lower its annual spend by more than $1bn a year once it’s been executed, as early as the first half of 2025.

“As the largest US automotive manufacturer, we’re fully committed to autonomous driving and excited to bring GM customers its benefits, said software and services engineering VP Dave Richardson. “Things like enhanced safety, improved traffic flow, increased accessibility and reduced driver stress."