GM's Cruise Robotaxi Unit Dismisses Nine Execs After Safety Probe

According to Reuters, General Motors' Cruise robotaxi unit dismissed nine executives amid an ongoing safety investigation, which the company confirmed included Chief Operating Officer Gil West. The company conducted a full safety review following an incident in San Francisco where a pedestrian was struck and dragged by one of its cars. GM already halted service nationwide and removed its cars from public roads. Reuters reports: CEO Kyle Vogt and co-founder Dan Kan both resigned in recent weeks and Cruise is preparing for a round of layoffs this month. "Following an initial analysis of the October 2 incident and Cruise's response to it, nine individuals departed Cruise," according to the memo. "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," the memo said. "As a result, we believe that new leadership is necessary to achieve these goals."

The Cruise spokesperson confirmed that among those dismissed was also Chief Legal and Policy Officer Jeff Bleich and Senior Vice President of Government Affairs David Estrada. Cruise's troubles are also a setback for an industry dependent on public trust and the cooperation of regulators. The unit had in recent months touted ambitious plans to expand to more cities, offering fully autonomous taxi rides. The investigation, led by law firm Quinn Emmanuel, is expected to last until January, GM has said. "The personnel decisions made today are a necessary step for Cruise to move forward as it focuses on accountability, trust and transparency," GM said in a statement.

Wow, cleaning house

[timeOday]

I hope this reset doesn't halt their future progress. Of course full-speed ahead without safety would be worse.

To me it seems like Waymo is far ahead. If they can keep slowly and steadily building their coverage area for the next 10 or 15 years it'll be a huge business that's very hard to copy.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

It's OK, it's executives. I'm presuming the engineers at Cruise are still there working on getting it to work.

Re:

[geekmux]

It's OK, it's executives. I'm presuming the engineers at Cruise are still there working on getting it to work.

A problem occurs in the system response (software/configuration) during an unfortunate accident with a pedestrian, and executive heads roll?

Not exactly the normal customary reaction by any means. Tends to raise even more questions as to what's really going on there.

Re:

[GrumpySteen]

The Cruise division withheld details of the accident when it first happened and the investigations started. The blame for that lies entirely with the executives who headed the division.

As the investigation continued, the withheld details were uncovered and the proverbial shit was about to hit the fan. Firing the executives at the top lands somewhere between holding them accountable for their actions and a PR move to show the investigators and public that the division will be more cooperative going forward

Re:

[geekmux]

...lands somewhere between holding them accountable for their actions and a PR move to show the investigators and public that the division will be more cooperative going forward.

Is it wrong to assume we'll see the executives re-hired back 3 months from now under a brand-new agreement with a 'punishment' represented as a 15% raise?

Perhaps I'm just spitballing about a PR move that won't actually hold any executive accountable and was nothing but a temporary stunt to appease investigators over something that can likely be litigated down to "expected behavior" across seemingly every recall-riddled vendor lying about the safety of these things as a whole.

Re: Wow, cleaning house

[sodul]

I'm actually wondering how many miles per human intervention the Waymo cars are actually capable. That's not something they advertise and was not a required disclosure to the California DMV when I read the regulation a few years ago. As long as the cars are still being confused by unexpected condition or stuck when the 4G/5G data connection is lost, the tech cannot work at consumer scale. I see a similar issue with the use of LiDAR which does not work under crowded conditions.
Tech demos at small scale are o

Re: Wow, cleaning house

[timeOday]

I would love to know those things myself.

But they don't just give up without a constant data connection:

August 28, 2023

In response to inquiries from Light Reading, a Waymo spokesperson revealed that the company's self-driving vehicles are not reliant on a continuous wireless connection for safe operation, nor do they use vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications.

"We believe the most optimal way to operate autonomous driving technology is for the compute to be on board and for it to make decisions, without needing to rely on cell signals and remote operators," the spokesperson wrote. "We don't want to have a situation where, say, if the car lost cell connection, it couldn't make a left turn. Therefore, everything from custom made maps to robust neural nets that inform our perception and routing runs on board."

https://www.lightreading.com/i... [lightreading.com]

This article has a few other nice tidbits in it. But it doesn't say how many people are needed to remotely monitor each 100 cars.

None of the systems work

[burtosis]

GM is not alone, waymo hasn’t been able to roll out anything, Mercedes supposed level 3 needs constant attention is limited to 40 miles per hour and only works on extremely limited pre-mapped roads while only in daylight no rain no snow no construction No anything which means you need to be ready to take over in a seconds notice. Tesla just recalled all 2,000,000 vehicles with “FSD” after 1000 crashes [apnews.com] to tone back drivers not sitting hyper aware not doing anything until some X hours later when a seconds notice is life and death like some demented ADD test made up by Darwin. The technology won’t be ready for decades so that we really can get rid of a steering wheel and won’t surpass a half sober half attentive driver anytime soon.

Re:None of the systems work

[Retired Chemist]

It appears that the management at the Cruise division of GM was lying about that to senior management. Of course, if senior management had been paying attention they would have caught this long ago. Real self-driving vehicles that can handle bad weather, construction zones, badly designed roads, and bad drivers are a long way off, I am afraid.

Re:

[martin-boundary]

It's very difficult to get people to see and admit the truth when their job depends on a lie, or the lie is worth $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Re:

[TWX]

It appears that the management at the Cruise division of GM was lying about that to senior management. Of course, if senior management had been paying attention they would have caught this long ago. Real self-driving vehicles that can handle bad weather, construction zones, badly designed roads, and bad drivers are a long way off, I am afraid.

Yes. A neighbor works at one of the companies (not uber, not GM, not Waymo) that is working on the technology. Anything that doesn't fit the standard clear road model is a major problem, because the vehicles simply aren't capable of doing things like reading construction signs like a person can.

I suspect that we will require vehicle-to-any notification messages, smart-barricades used in construction sites to help direct traffic, and even things like smart Botz-dots as lane markers if we really want it to

Re:

[geekmux]

...after 1000 crashes to tone back drivers not sitting hyper aware not doing anything until some X hours later when a seconds notice is life and death like some demented ADD test made up by Darwin.

Until some X hours later? Teslas were not designed to press a destination button and allow the driver to get sleepy-sleepy time.

Since it has been repeated rather explicitly that one should continue to be attentive behind the wheel even when AutoX features are engaged, to include a steering wheel embedded with sensors that specifically looks for human interaction at regular intervals, the only logical conclusion after 1,000 crashes is understanding that Tesla drivers can earn a Darwin Award just as efficien

Re:

[mjwx]

GM is not alone, waymo hasn’t been able to roll out anything, Mercedes supposed level 3 needs constant attention is limited to 40 miles per hour and only works on extremely limited pre-mapped roads while only in daylight no rain no snow no construction No anything which means you need to be ready to take over in a seconds notice. Tesla just recalled all 2,000,000 vehicles with “FSD” after 1000 crashes [apnews.com] to tone back drivers not sitting hyper aware not doing anything until some X hours later when a seconds notice is life and death like some demented ADD test made up by Darwin. The technology won’t be ready for decades so that we really can get rid of a steering wheel and won’t surpass a half sober half attentive driver anytime soon.

This.

I've been saying this for ages but the notion that "fully self driving cars are just around the corner, the days of driving are over" still stubbornly persists. It's a fantasy by people who drive drab automatic SUV's that consider paying attention to the road a chore rather than a responsibility (or *gasp* something that can be enjoyed). It's always been nonsense as the Google car bought up in defence has rarely been driven without a driver and has crashed when both the driver and car made the same

Re:

[fluffernutter]

No one fully realizes how powerful our own spacial recognition coupled with human intelligence truly is, and how difficult it is to make a computer understand that. They spend a lot of time in driving courses telling you about the unexpected things that happen and navigating around them safely. Until a system can understand those as well rather than just being trained for expected things then it will always fall short.

Smells

[Tablizer]

If 9 executives were rushing shit, then most likely they were pressured by the top to move-fast-and-break-things.

The chance of 9 executives coincidently having an overly caffeinated personality & strategy is unlikely. Occam's razor says Top Cat.

Re:Smells

[Tony Isaac]

Yes, absolutely, the "Top Cat" is to blame. But the 9 execs also caved and told him what he wanted to hear. If you want to be an effective exec, you have to be able to diplomatically stand up to the CEO. Yeah, it's not easy, but it's not impossible either. As a "Senior Manager" I regularly have to stand up to directors, VPs, and the Suite. I have to have my wits, and facts, about me, and understand how to communicate and educate. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Re:

[mjwx]

Yes, absolutely, the "Top Cat" is to blame. But the 9 execs also caved and told him what he wanted to hear. If you want to be an effective exec, you have to be able to diplomatically stand up to the CEO. Yeah, it's not easy, but it's not impossible either. As a "Senior Manager" I regularly have to stand up to directors, VPs, and the Suite. I have to have my wits, and facts, about me, and understand how to communicate and educate. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

With re-spect, Top Cat always gets the blame but it's Officer Dibble that is at fault.

Re:

[Tablizer]

If the top cat fires those who don't cooperate with move-fast-and-break, then what will remain will be nothing but yes-people.

Also, the top cat should form relationships at multiple levels in the org to get a pulse, not just listen to the second level.

Re:

[Tony Isaac]

If the top cat fires those who don't cooperate with move-fast-and-break, then what will remain will be nothing but yes-people.

You are correct, and if those 9 yes-people get fired when their promises don't come true, I have no pity for them. They got the natural consequences of their actions.

If one of them isn't a yes-person and gets fired as a result, then that person will be better off somewhere else.

In either case, there's plenty of blame to go around.

Well that's refreshing

[locater16]

The execs making the decisions getting it in the pants first and foremost before the workers, decent change of pace anyway.