General Motors said on Tuesday that its Cruise driverless-taxi division has restarted test operations in three Sun Belt cities, using self-driving cars with human safety drivers who will monitor the vehicles and intervene if needed.
G.M. had suspended most of Cruise’s operations after one of its vehicles hit and dragged a pedestrian last year in San Francisco, where the unit is based and had been operating an extensive fleet of taxis that people could hail through a mobile app.
The incident prompted California to revoke Cruise’s license to operate driverless vehicles in the state. G.M. laid off about a quarter of Cruise’s employees and brought in new executives to run the division.
G.M.’s chief financial officer, Paul Jacobson, said Cruise is now providing autonomous ride services in Dallas, Houston and Phoenix. He also said Cruise was using self-driving versions of the Chevrolet Bolt electric car and that production of a dedicated driverless cab called the Cruise Origin had been suspended indefinitely. G.M. developed the Origin — a rectangular, van-like vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals — specifically for Cruise.
“We think from a regulatory perspective, and also from a cost perspective, at this point in time, we think the Bolt is a better solution,” Mr. Jacobson said in a conference call with reporters.
Eventually, Cruise will switch to a modified version of a redesigned Bolt that is expected to go into production next year. Mr. Jacobson said the new Bolt will be less expensive than the Origin.
The Cruise update was included in G.M.’s earnings report covering the three-month period between April and June. The automaker reported profits of $2.9 billion, up from $2.6 billion in the same period last year, on strong sales of gasoline pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Its revenue rose to $48 billion, up from $44.7 billion. The company also raised its forecast for how much money it will make before certain expenses for the full year.
Cruise, however, booked a loss of $500 million before taking into account interest and taxes, an improvement from the $600 million it lost in the same period a year earlier.
G.M. acquired Cruise, a start-up funded by venture capital firms, in 2016. The automaker has since invested billions of dollars in the division, in the hope that it will some day become a widespread driverless taxi service that generates significant revenue and profits. But many analysts fear that may not happen for years, if ever.
Cruise is racing against other companies pursuing the same goal. They include Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent, Alphabet, and Zoox, an Amazon subsidiary. Tesla has also said it is working on a driverless taxi service but it is not yet offering rides even on a test basis to paying customers.
The incident that sparked Cruise’s troubles occurred last October, when a pedestrian in San Francisco was hit by another vehicle and thrown into the path of a self-driving Cruise vehicle that had no safety driver behind the wheel. The Cruise vehicle dragged the woman about 20 feet before stopping.
At the time, Cruise was preparing for a rapid expansion and was testing cars in Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Austin, Texas. In San Francisco, Cruise was operating a fleet of about 400 cars and was offering driverless taxi rides during daytime hours.
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles revoked Cruise’s license and accused it of leaving out the scene of its car dragging the woman from a video of the incident initially provided to the agency.
A few months later, in a report prepared by an outside law firm, Cruise acknowledged that its executives had failed to give a full explanation of the incident to state regulators. By then, G.M. had laid off about 900 Cruise employees and Cruise’s founder and chief executive, Kyle Vogt, had left the company.
Last month, G.M. named Marc Whitten as Cruise’s new chief executive. Mr. Whitten, who previously worked at Microsoft’s Xbox unit and Amazon, started at Cruise a week ago.
Source: nytimes.com