GM Abruptly Shuts Down Cruise Robotaxi Program

General Motors (GM), the largest automaker in the United States, announced this Tuesday that it ended its robotaxi program Cruise. The electric vehicle startup workers found out when the press release went public.

According to Reuters, the automaker explained that its Cruise business was losing money and would stop developing self-driving vehicles considering the competitive market and the company’s needs to scale.

GM said in its public announcement that it will prioritize the company’s autonomous driving system for personal cars and combine Cruise and GM’s technical teams. GM acquired the majority of Cruise in 2016 and now expects to increase its ownership near 100% to restructure it and lower spending.

“GM will no longer fund Cruise’s robotaxi development work given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market,” states the document.

According to TechCrunch, workers at Cruise learned about the end of the robotaxi program when Marc Whitten, Cruise CEO, shared the press release on a Slack post yesterday. Anonymous sources working at the EV startup said they were surprised by the decision—as they expected to launch a driverless service next year in Houston— and that they expect job cuts.

Cruise has been underperforming in the market this year as it has been under investigation for car accidents, and GM has been cutting back its efforts in electric vehicle development. According to Reuters, GM recently sold its stake in a battery plant and has been focusing on gasoline trucks and large vehicles as these are more profitable.

Toyota also announced a few weeks ago that, along with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, they will invest and focus more on Software Defined Vehicle (SDV).