{"id":117,"date":"2024-06-26T08:47:55","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T08:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=117"},"modified":"2024-06-26T10:44:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T10:44:02","slug":"gm-appoints-xbox-engineer-as-cruise-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"GM appoints Xbox engineer as Cruise CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

General Motors on Tuesday named a veteran technology executive with roots in the video game industry to steer its troubled robotaxi service Cruise as it tries to recover from a gruesome collision that triggered the suspension of its California license.<\/p>\n

\n

Marc Whitten, one of the key engineers behind the Xbox video game console, will take over as Cruise\u2019s chief executive nearly nine months after one of the service\u2019s robotaxis dragged a jaywalking pedestrian \u2014 who had just been struck by a vehicle driven by a human \u2014 across a darkened street in San Francisco before coming to a stop.<\/p>\n

That early October 2023 incident prompted California regulators to\u00a0slam the brakes<\/a>\u00a0on Cruise\u2019s robotaxis in San Francisco. It had\u00a0previously giving the driverless vehicles approval<\/a>\u00a0to charge for rides throughout the second densest city in the U.S., despite objections of local government officials who cited flaws in the autonomous technology.<\/p>\n

General Motors, which had hoped Cruise would be generating $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025, has since scaled back its massive investments in the robotaxi service. The cutbacks resulted in\u00a0900 workers being laid off j<\/a>\u00a0ust weeks after Cruise co-founder and former CEO\u00a0Kyle Vogt resigned from his job<\/a>\u00a0in the aftermath of crash that sent the pedestrian to the hospital.<\/p>\n

The arrival of new leadership at Cruise came on the same day rival robotaxi service Waymo disclosed its driverless vehicles\u00a0are ready to start picking up anyone in San Francisco<\/a>\u00a0who wants ride within the city. Waymo had been only accepting requests from riders selected from a waiting list that had grown to 300,000 people.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second major city where Waymo\u2019s robotaxis are open to all comers, joining Phoenix, where the driverless vehicles have been giving rides for several years.<\/p>\n

Although Waymo\u2019s vehicles so far haven\u2019t been involved in any collisions like the one that sidelined Cruise, the company recently issued a voluntary recall that required delivering a software update throughout its fleet after one of its robotaxis hit a telephone pole in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Whitten, who also has worked at Amazon and Sonos, will be taking over a robotaxi service facing far more daunting challenges. General Motors earlier this year disclosed that the U.S. Justice Department has\u00a0opened an inquiry<\/a>\u00a0into Cruise\u2019s handling of the October crash in San Francisco. California regulators also fined Cruise $112,000 for its response to that collision.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Whitten said he believes Cruise can still make transportation safer than it has been with humans behind the wheel of cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an opportunity of a lifetime to be part of this transformation,\u201d Whitten said. \u201dThe team at Cruise has built world-class technology, and I look forward to working with them to help bring this critical mission to life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Subscribe to the Fortune Next to Lead newsletter to get weekly strategies on how to make it to the corner office. Sign up for free.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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