General Motors Co. has announced that Dan Ammann, Chief Executive Officer of Cruise, is leaving the company. Kyle Vogt, Cruise President and Chief Technical Officer, will serve as interim CEO.
In addition, Wesley Bush, the former Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman and a GM board member, will join the Cruise Board.
Alongside this leadership change, GM says it will accelerate the strategy the company detailed in its recent Investor Day, in which Cruise will play ‘an integral role in building GM’s autonomous vehicle (AV) platform as GM pursues AV markets beyond rideshare and delivery’.
Ammann has led Cruise CEO since 2015.
In April 2021, it announced that several institutional investors and Walmart have joined its previously announced investment round, bringing the total capital raised to $2.75 billion at a valuation of more than $30 billion.
In a press statement, the company says: ‘GM is deeply committed to its vision of zero crashes, zero emissions, zero congestion, and AV technology will play a critical role in realizing it. Under GM’s ownership to date, Cruise has seized the leadership position in commercial autonomous ridesharing and has created significant value for both GM shareholders and Cruise’s minority shareholders’.
It adds: ‘By continuing to work together, GM and Cruise bring massive manufacturing and technological scale to autonomy that will rapidly drive costs down. The integrated strategy will also maximize GM and Cruise’s total addressable market by leveraging synergies, leading to greater, more sustainable value for both GM and Cruise shareholders’.
Founded in 2013, Cruise was acquired by General Motors in 2016. In 2020 it announced a partnership with Walmart on a self-driving delivery pilot in Arizona, and made its first driverless ride on the streets of San Francisco.
