Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt announced his resignation from the controversial robotaxi startup on Sunday night. The co-founder’s sudden departure arrives after months of public and political backlash regarding the autonomous car fleet’s security, and hints at future points for the corporate bought by Basic Motors in 2016 for over $1 billion.
Vogt’s resignation follows months of documented hazardous driving behaviors from Cruise’s autonomous car fleet, together with injuring pedestrians, delaying emergency responders, and failing to detect children. Cruise’s Golden State tenure itself lasted barely two months following a California Public Utilities Fee greenlight on 24/7 robotaxi companies in August. Nearly instantly, residents and metropolis officers started documenting situations of obvious visitors pileups, blocked roadways, and seemingly reckless driving involving Cruise and Google-owned Waymo robotaxis. In the meantime, Cruise representatives together with Vogt aggressively campaigned in opposition to claims of an unsafe car fleet.
[Related: San Francisco is pushing back against the rise of robotaxis.]
“Something that we do otherwise than people is being sensationalized,” Vogt informed The Washington Post in September.
On October 2, a Cruise robotaxi didn’t keep away from hitting a girl pedestrian first struck by one other automotive, subsequently dragging her 20 feet down the road. GM issued a San Francisco moratorium on Cruise operations three weeks later, adopted by a nationwide expansion of the suspension on November 6.
However even with Cruise on an indefinite hiatus, opponents like Waymo and Zoox proceed testing autonomous taxis throughout San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and elsewhere to various levels of success. As The New York Times reviews, Waymo’s integration into Phoenix continues to progress easily. In the meantime, Austin accidents turned so regarding that metropolis officers felt the necessity to set up an inside process drive over the summer time to assist log and course of autonomous car incidents.
[Related: Self-driving taxis allegedly blocked an ambulance and the patient died.]
In a thread posted to X over the weekend, Vogt known as his expertise helming Cruise “superb,” and expressed gratitude to the corporate and its staff whereas telling them to “bear in mind why this work issues.”
“The established order on our roads sucks, however collectively we’ve confirmed there’s something much better across the nook,” wrote Vogt earlier than asserting his plans to spend time together with his household and discover new concepts.
“Thanks for the good journey!” Vogt concluded.
