Mark Vogt’s resignation follows the suspension of a ride-sharing service operated by the self-driving car company Cruise in the U.S.

Two years ago, General Motors presented a vision for the future that involved “zero crashes, zero traffic, and zero emissions.” The future is further away than it has ever been.

Kyle Vogt, the CEO of self-driving car developer Cruise who founded the company before its acquisition by General Motors in 2016, resigned this evening. His announcement coincides with upheaval at the company, which last month had its permit to operate its innovative ride-sharing service halted by state regulators.

A new chief safety officer, a recall of all its vehicles, and an outside group performed an independent safety audit were taken care of by the company.

Dan Kan, the co-founding member of Cruise and the company’s chief product officer has stepped down according to a source with knowledge of the events. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the departure.

The Cruise Automotive Future: How a General Counsel Can Save the Company and Its Employees from Implications for the Future of Transportation and Safety

Most automakers have already dialed back their autonomous ambitions. The company ceased to operate last year after Ford and Volkswagen pulled their funding. Toyota’s vision for a futuristic city teeming with self-driving cars has been significantly delayed. In 2022, AV investments went down nearly 60 percent year over year as startups struggled through layoffs or outright closures.

But Cruise’s struggles are unique to GM. Car companies have sought to keep away from the self-driving cars being worked on by the startups. But GM has stayed bullish, insisting that the billions of dollars it was sinking into the technology (GM has lost $8.2 billion on Cruise since 2017) would eventually result in a safer future — and a huge payout for the company.

Rather than sit back and let driverless cars come to them eventually, Barra insisted on GM staying in the driver’s seat. And now it has to deal with the fallout when that company’s “move fast and break things” culture has resulted in a crisis.

Initially, that could mean taking more of a direct hand in Cruise’s operation. GM general counsel Craig Glidden will be co-president of Cruise along with Mo Elshenay, who will also become chief technology officer, according to the report. Jon McNeill, who has been on the board of GM for several years, was named the vice chairman of the Cruise board.

There are other options that can be used. GM just re-absorbed its electric delivery company BrightDrop, which spun out nearly two years ago. Could GM do something similar to Cruise, bring it directly into the fold to ensure corners aren’t cut and safety remains paramount?

It’s unclear, but GM has already tightened the reins by signaling that layoffs would be coming. Cruise has laid off many of the contract workers who do maintenance. Cruise employees are also at risk of losing their jobs.

The company said that results of the reviews will inform the next steps as they continue to build a better cruise. We will continue to advance the use of audiovisuals in order to make transportation safer and cleaner.

Cruise won approval to transport fare-paying passengers last year. Objections have been drawn by the vehicles for making unexpected, traffic-clogging stops that they critics say will cause harm to other travelers and endanger public safety.

During the day Cruise could only give free rides, and at night it could charge for rides in less congested parts of San Francisco. Vogt earlier said most collisions were caused by inattentive or impaired human drivers, not the AVs.

A Note on Vogt and the Challenges of Managing an Interactive Video Streaming Service (Conference Notes on Twitch)

Vogt went to theMIT and co-developed the interactive streaming service for content like gaming, entertainment, sports and music. A year ago, Amazon acquired the video game streaming company, Twitch, for $1 billion.

“The status quo on our roads sucks, but together we’ve proven there is something far better around the corner,” Vogt wrote in a message to Cruise workers posted on X. He didn’t mention the company’s recent troubles.