Nine executives at Cruise — General Motors’s (GM) autonomous vehicle unit — left the company Wednesday in the wake of a safety investigation, according to a company spokesperson.
The company came under fire earlier this year following a crash in October where a Cruise vehicle dragged a pedestrian to the side of the road due to an error in the car’s software.
A spokesperson for Cruise confirmed nine individuals “departed” the company following “an initial analysis of the Oct. 2 incident and Cruise’s response to it.”
“As a company, we are committed to full transparency and are focused on rebuilding trust and operating with the highest standards when it comes to safety, integrity, and accountability and believe that new leadership is necessary to achieve these goals,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill.
Without naming the departing executives, the spokesperson said the group includes “key leaders” from departments including legal, government affairs and commercial operations, along with safety and systems.
Their departure comes less than a month after now-former CEO Kyle Vogt resigned with little explanation for the decision.
The autonomous vehicle company has been surrounded in controversy in recent months following a series of collisions, notably the Oct. 2 crash.
The accident occurred when a Cruise vehicle dragged a pedestrian to the side of road after the person was hit by a different car and pushed into the path of the Cruise vehicle. The company said the car’s software incorrectly categorized the crash, causing the car to try to pull over instead of staying stationary, according to filings with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Oct. 2 crash was among a series of collisions that prompted the company last month to recall nearly 1,000 of its cars to update their software. California also rescinded Cruise’s driverless permits, claiming the cars are unsafe for public operation and that Cruise “misrepresented” safety information.
Earlier in October, Cruise announced it was pausing driverless operations across all of its fleets to “examine” the company’s processes and tools. That pause was extended last month to its supervised and manual auto vehicle operations.
Cruise in August won approval to transport fare-paying passengers and started testing its autonomous cars on San Francisco roads in August. Less than two weeks later, the company agreed to cut their fleet in half after two crashes.
Separately, Cruise announced Thursday the company was laying off 24 percent of its workforce. The spokesperson said these layoffs primarily affect those in “commercial operations and related corporate functions.”
“These changes reflect our decision to focus on more deliberate commercialization plans with safety as our north star,” the spokesperson said, adding those laid off will receive “strong severance and benefits packages.”