General Motors (GM) is seeking help from former employees of its failed robotaxi startup Cruise to advance a new self-driving car program. The Detroit auto giant has hired former Cruise and Tesla executive Ronalee Mann as head of product operations, who will report to GM Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mann previously served as strategy and operations manager at Cruise, leaving the company in April 2024. She previously served as director of strategic projects at Tesla. When she joins GM, she will focus on "streamlining" operations and "eliminating unnecessary friction" from its "systems, tools and processes."
GM Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson, who previously served as head of autonomous driving at Tesla, added that Rashed Haq, another former Cruise executive, will join GM as the company's new vice president of autonomous driving.
Anderson praised Harker's work at Cruise, adding that he will "keep us focused on execution and moving toward safe autonomy." Harker announced his new position on LinkedIn last week. Mann's move has never been made public before.
Since joining GM in May, Anderson has revamped the century-old automaker's software division. Reports emerged in August that Anderson told employees he would seek to rehire some former Cruise employees to help build a new self-driving car platform for personal use.
In December, General Motors shut down the self-driving taxi startup in which it had invested more than $10 billion since 2016.
Cruise was allowed to operate a self-driving taxi service in San Francisco with Waymo, but it was banned from operating in California, and the company had to recall its entire fleet after one of its self-driving taxis seriously injured a pedestrian.
GM's software division has seen some major executive changes in recent months. The company's senior vice president of software and services engineering and head of artificial intelligence have been out since October, and reports last week suggested that senior vice president Baris Cetinok would also leave this month.