Trust shaken: Cruise robotaxis are no longer allowed to drive autonomously through San Francisco after a spectacular accident.
Image: Bloomberg
The license revocation for self-driving cars from GM's Cruise division in San Francisco is bad news for the entire industry. Confidence in autonomous driving technologies has been shaken. Now a monopoly could arise.
IIn July, all seemed right with the world for Cruise. At the time, the General Motors subsidiary placed full-page advertisements in American newspapers and confidently claimed to be making road traffic safer with its robot cars. “People are terrible drivers,” read the headline, noting that around 42,800 Americans died in crashes last year.
Cruise cars are involved in significantly fewer collisions than vehicles with people behind the wheel, it said. A few days after the ads were published, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt expressed unbridled optimism at an analyst conference held by the parent company. The expansion is going “extremely well” and Cruise is on a growth path that most companies could only dream of.
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