General Motors repeatedly "fumbles" its lead in technology, Cruise Autonomy Co-Founder Kyle Vogt wrote on X on Tuesday. Its latest decision to kill Cruise's steering-wheel-free Origin autonomous shuttle is just another in a long line of tech failures stretching back to the EV1, Vogt argued.
"Disappointed to see GM kill the Origin. Would have been amazing for cities. GM repeatedly finds themselves with a five to 10-year head start, but then fumbles the ball, shuts things down, and loses the lead," Vogt said.
Twisting the knife further, he added: "Anyone remember the EV1? It’s like someone keeps letting them look into a crystal ball and then they just go, 'nah, we’re good."
Ouch.
Cruise announced Tuesday morning that it was indefinitely delaying the Origin as the embattled autonomy company attempts to right its operations. The company has struggled in the wake of a high-profile incident where a Cruise autonomous vehicle dragged a pedestrian along the ground after colliding with her. The Cruise AV did not cause the initial accident—the pedestrian was thrown into its path by another vehicle. But upon detecting the incident, the Cruise AV allegedly tried to pull over, and in doing so dragged the woman underneath it.
Gallery: Cruise Origin Production Paused
California suspended Cruise's permission to operate autonomous taxis in the state following the incident. Officials also claimed that Cruise had not been forthcoming with all of the footage of the incident. Vogt, who was CEO at the time of the incident, stepped down over the turmoil. Experts interviewed by Automotive News pinned a lot of the failure on Vogt's focus on rapid expansion. Cruise, they said, had to slow down.
The newest decision is likely a result of that realization. Cruise needs to rebuild trust and refine its product.
But Vogt's remarks are not without validity.
The idea that GM gets ahead on something, only to drop it and then scramble to catch up again later, is one of the most persistent criticisms of the company.
GM has been early on things now critical to the auto market. It was an early pioneer of EVs in the 90s, with the EV1. Yet it killed that product, and was as blindsided as the rest of the industry by Tesla's rise. The company invented the plug-in hybrid with the Volt, only to kill it before the concept caught on. Now, it's rushing to get PHEVs back to market, which won't happen until 2027. It also launched hybrid full-size trucks and SUVs back in 2009, only to kill them before Ford and Toyota were able to make the segment work.
Its flagship Super Cruise semi-autonomous system was the best mainstream semi-autonomous driving system when it launched in 2017, but it was at first exclusively available on the Cadillac CT6, a total dud. But the time GM got Super Cruise to volume products, Ford had already struck back with Blue Cruise, and many other companies had taken similar leaps forward. It killed the Bolt EV, only to reverse course and relaunch it when the market demanded smaller, more affordable EVs.
The Origin may be another example to add to the list. But with Cruise still iced out of its biggest market, California, and just tiptoeing back into AV operations, it's hard to blame the company for tapping the brakes. A bespoke autonomous shuttle without a steering wheel or pedals sounds great, but GM argues it can continue development using Chevy Bolts. That'll save them the extra regulatory hurdles and exorbitant cost of launching a bespoke autonomous platform without driver controls. If competitors are willing to deal with that, though, then GM may end up behind the pack.
I've reached out to General Motors and Cruise declined to comment on this story.
