CEO of Cruise Steps Down
SAN FRANCISCO — The CEO of Cruise announced on Sunday he was stepping down from the role.
"The last 10 years have been amazing, and I'm grateful to everyone who helped Cruise along the way," CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt posted on X. "The startup I launched in my garage has given over 250,000 driverless rides across several cities, with each ride inspiring people with a small taste of the future."
Vogt's resignation comes less than a month after the autonomous car company paused its driverless robotaxi operations nationwide. The pause happened two days after the California DMV suspended its driverless testing permits in the state.
The suspension happened due to an incident in October where a Cruise robotaxi dragged a pedestrian that had been struck by another vehicle in San Francisco.
Cruise's permit for testing of the vehicles with a safety driver inside was not affected by the suspension.
Cruise also recently announced layoffs among its contract employees who worked on the ride-hailing service's fleet of autonomous vehicles.
The workers laid off included support staff who clean, charge and service the robotaxis, as well as customer service workers.
Following a recent vehicle recall for a software update, leading autonomous vehicle company, Cruise, has announced a round of layoffs. The recall was prompted by an incident that resulted in the suspension of Cruise's testing permit.
Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, is headquartered in San Francisco and operates in various cities including Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin and Houston, Texas.
