Self-driving taxi operator Cruise is planning to slowly resume service, starting in one city in Texas or Arizona, in an effort to overcome safety concerns and a lack of public trust. Additionally, the company will narrow its engineering focus to its existing self-driving taxis and lay off an unknown number of non-engineers in multiple cities.
The General Motors-owned developer of self-driving cars needs to take small steps to rebuild its credibility after a series of incidents, including a horrific pedestrian accident in San Francisco last month.
New president and chief technology officer Mo Elshenawy outlined the company's next steps in an email to Cruise employees on Wednesday.
Elshenawy told employees that the company is awaiting the results of two independent investigations and will focus on realistic plans "that our team can achieve."
"We will take steps to improve safety culture and rebuild trust, and the strategy is to relaunch in one city and prove our performance there before scaling up," a Cruise spokesperson confirmed the content of the employee email.
Cruise will focus solely on its electric Bolt self-driving taxi, which means abandoning plans to develop and deploy a second self-driving taxi: the Origin, which is purpose-built by General Motors. Worth noting: General Motors has said it will pause production of the Origin in the coming weeks, and it doesn't expect to build more Origins until 2024.
Elshenawy told employees the changes mean Cruise will lay off an unspecified number of employees from its 3,800 employees. The layoffs will primarily affect non-engineering staff, including those who work on Cruise's commercial promotions in San Francisco and other markets.
What is certain is that Cruise's operations will not restart in San Francisco, as California has revoked its license to operate there.
The most likely option is a city in Texas — Austin, Dallas or Houston — where Cruise already has some operations and is preparing to expand, since the regulatory environment in Texas is much friendlier to self-driving cars than in California.
Another possibility is Phoenix, where Cruise had a driverless delivery operation until recently. (Cruise’s main competitor, Waymo, is already well established in Phoenix.)