Cruise scales back ambitions to single city; GM says Origin robotaxi won't be produced in 2024

Cruise, the General Motors subsidiary, made sweeping changes to its future plans Wednesday in the wake of a safety crisis that has thrown the company's future into question.

The company has trimmed the scope of its ambitions. It plans to deploy self-driving vehicles in a single city once it restarts operations, according to a letter sent to employees Wednesday. That's far fewer than the 13 U.S. cities where Cruise had either already deployed or planned to deploy robotaxis.

Cruise did not say Wednesday which city will be selected or when operations will restart.

Further, GM has delayed production of its Cruise Origin robotaxi, the company said.

In the weeks ahead, the company is expected to complete production of a "small number" of pre-commercial prototypes. Neither prototypes nor production models will be built in 2024, a GM spokesperson said.

The delay is indefinite. There is no scheduled plan to resume Origin production. It is not immediately known how many Origins the company has made.

The lack of production in 2024 may signal the length of time GM and Cruise expect the company to be idled amid its tumultuous safety crisis.

"We've made the decision to focus on the Bolt-based Cruise AVs in the near term, with a longer-term strategy around the Origin," a Cruise spokesperson said,

California regulators indefinitely suspended its driverless permits Oct. 24. Cruise then implemented a national pause in operations. Last week, its two founding executives, Kyle Vogt and Daniel Kan, announced their departures.

The Origin is supposed to be the vehicular centerpiece of Cruise's autonomous efforts and scheduled to be built at GM's Factory Zero in Detroit. As recently as a month ago, the Origin was expected soon in driverless service in more than a dozen U.S. cities, as well as a ride-hailing service in Tokyo that Cruise unveiled days before its suspension.

Early this month, GM had disclosed plans to build a small number of Origins this year and then planned a temporary pause in production plans.

Cruise's problems have not been the only factor hindering the Origin's widespread deployment. The Origin does not have traditional controls such as a steering wheel or brake pedals. GM officials have sought an exemption from federal safety standards to deploy the vehicle in widespread service.

The company has waited a long time for an answer. It first submitted the request to NHTSA in February 2022. Earlier this year, Cruise executives expressed optimism an exemption would be approved and the vehicle would be in mass production by the end of this year.

But no answer has been forthcoming from NHTSA, and now, the exemption request is the least of the company's concerns.