11.47 - Picking up the pieces
- 11/29/23
47th edition of the 11th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
Cruise is taking a bruising
M. Sena, Nov. 26, "IT HAS BEEN a rough couple of months for CRUISE LLC after it reached a high point in August this year. That was when CRUISE, along with WAYMO LLC, received approval from the CALIFORNIA DIVISION OF MOTOR VEHICLES to operate round-the-clock paid ride-supplying services in the state with their driverless vehicles, that is, with no human primary or back-up driver in the vehicle. CRUISE's license was for 300 vehicles. Then the wheels began to come off the cart, figuratively speaking. On Sunday evening, the 19th of November, CRUISE founder and CEO, Kyle Vogt, announced that he was throwing in the towel. Is this the beginning of the end for CRUISE? Or is this just the end of the beginning, as most of the Pollyannaish opinion pieces on the subject have opined?
Spoiler: It's not the end for CRUISE, but it should be the end for GM's skunkworks project with CRUISE, and the start of a more serious approach toward driverless vehicles by the automobile industry and investors. How it began to unravel.…"
Hmmmm…. Read on and watch ZoomCast 347 and let's start picking up the pieces. Alain
is repeated below…