Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt Resigns Amid Safety Concerns And Suspension of Operations At GM Self-Driving Arm

Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt on Sunday said that he has resigned from his position as CEO of the General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) self-driving unit, after the recent safety concerns around the autonomous vehicle operator and subsequent withdrawal from U.S. roads.

What Happened: "Today I resigned from my position as CEO of Cruise," Vogt wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Vogt, who co-founded the company in 2013, offered little reason for his departure in the tweet but reminisced about the 10 years since he co-founded the company in 2013.
"Cruise is still just getting started, and I believe it has a great future ahead," Vogt wrote while reiterating faith in the company's future plan, product vision and also its safety.
“The status quo on our roads sucks, but together we've proven there is something far better around the corner,” he wrote.

Cruise paused its autonomous vehicle operations in San Francisco in October following a directive from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). California DMV suspended Cruise's autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permits citing "unreasonable risk" to public safety.
The authority further alleged that the company misrepresented information on the safety of its autonomous technology. The suspension of operations in Austin, Phoenix, and Houston followed a few days later.

Last week, the company announced that it is also pausing supervised and manual AV operations in the U.S. "This orderly pause is a further step to rebuild public trust while we undergo a full safety review," Cruise said, while adding that it will continue to operate its vehicles in "closed course training environments."

Why It Matters: Cruise has been embroiled in safety concerns after one of its AVs got involved in an accident in early October. In the incident, a human-driven vehicle traveling adjacent to a Cruise AV collided with a pedestrian, sending the pedestrian across the vehicle and onto the ground in the path of the AV. The AV made contact with a pedestrian and pulled them forward by about 20 feet. Cruise issued a recall for a subsystem within 950 of its automated driving systems following the accident.

Price Action: On Friday, GM shares closed 2% higher at $28.03 in the regular session.

Photo via Shutterstock

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