GM to shift from self-driving robotaxis to autonomous personal cars

General Motors is pivoting from self-driving robotaxies to instead developing fully autonomous driving technology for personal vehicles in the future.

The company made the announcement late Tuesday afternoon, with GM spokesman Kevin Kelly telling the Detroit Free Press that GM sees a better business opportunity with personal vehicle autonomy rather than building a robotaxi fleet with its San Francisco-based self-driving subsidiary Cruise.

The automaker said it will combine Cruise, of which GM is majority owner, and GM technical teams into a single effort to advance autonomous and assisted driving in personal cars. As a result, GM said it will no longer fund Cruise’s robotaxi development, given the considerable time and resources needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.

“GM is committed to delivering the best driving experiences to our customers in a disciplined and capital-efficient manner,” CEO Mary Barra said in a media statement. “Cruise has been an early innovator in autonomy, and the deeper integration of our teams, paired with GM’s strong brands, scale and manufacturing strength, will help advance our vision for the future of transportation.”