General Motors has announced that it will stop funding the development of the Cruise self-driving taxi.
The company says it will now “focus on the development of autonomous driving on personal vehicles”.
GM also pointed to the increasingly competitive robotaxis market as a reason for the move.
In October, Tesla boss Elon Musk unveiled the electric car giant’s long-awaited Robotex, the CyberCab, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.
GM attributed the change in strategy to “substantial time and resources that will be required to grow the business.”
The company did not say how many Cruz employees may be transferred to GM.
GM, which owns about 90 percent of Cruze, said it has agreements with other shareholders that would take its ownership to more than 97 percent.
In December 2023, Cruz said he would cut 900 jobs.about a quarter of its workforce.
Cruise previously pulled all of its U.S. vehicles from testing after California blocked driverless testing permits.
In October 2023, one of her vehicles collided with a pedestrian and dragged her more than 20 feet (6m), seriously injuring her.
Cruise Admitted to settle a criminal investigation last month for submitting a false report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in connection with the crash.
Federal prosecutors said cruise employees did not include details of the pedestrian drag as part of their account the morning after the incident.
Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt left the company a few weeks later.
On Tuesday, following GM’s announcement, Mr. Vogt Posted on social media platform X. “If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now: GM is a bunch of dummies.”
Mary Barra, chief executive of the Detroit-based manufacturer, previously predicted the cruise business could generate $50bn (£39bn) in annual revenue by 2030.
Rival motor manufacturing firms have also struggled with plans to build autonomous vehicles.
In 2022, Ford and Volkswagen announced that they would shut down Argo AI, their self-driving car joint venture.
Meanwhile, the emerging robotaxi industry It has long attracted big players.
Along with Tesla, competitors to build self-driving cabs include Waymo, Google’s parent company Alphabet – and a subsidiary of tech giant Amazon.