General Motors Co.’s
GM,
autonomous-vehicle segment Cruise is putting plans on hold for Origin, a GM-assembled driverless taxi, and shrinking its focus to a single city, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The move comes after safety concerns about Cruise’s vehicles. The Journal reported that Cruise planned to eventually bring back its robotaxi service. Mo Elshenawy, Cruise’s new co-president, detailed the plans to narrow operations to a single market in an email on Wednesday, after prior ambitions to run in multiple cities, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Cruise has suspended operations of its self-driving cars and expanded a safety probe following a crash involving a pedestrian in San Francisco. “As we work to rebuild trust with regulators and communities, we’ve made the decision to focus on the Bolt-based Cruise AVs in the near term with a longer term strategy around the Origin,” a Cruise spokesperson said in a statement. “Once we have taken steps to improve our safety culture and rebuild trust, our strategy is to re-launch in one city and prove our performance there, before expanding.” GM was not immediately available for comment.
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