Cruise to Permanently Shut Down Robotaxi Operations in Austin and Phoenix

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors, plans to permanently shut down its driverless ride-hailing services in Austin and Phoenix as the company scales back following a safety crisis last year.

On Wednesday, the company confirmed the closures as part of a broader operational reset. Cruise had already paused all its commercial driverless operations nationwide in October 2023 after a pedestrian collision in San Francisco sparked regulatory scrutiny.

The Austin and Phoenix robotaxi services had been suspended since the fall, but the closures are now official. The company will continue to maintain a small presence in both cities focused on mapping and software development, but it no longer plans to operate ride-hailing services there in the foreseeable future.

Cruise is currently operating a limited number of vehicles with safety drivers in Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston. The company’s primary goal remains reinstating driverless operations in San Francisco, where its permit was revoked by the California Department of Motor Vehicles last year. A date for that restart has not been announced.

GM CEO Mary Barra told investors in April that Cruise would resume ride-hailing services in just one city in 2024. She did not name the city, but internal company discussions have suggested San Francisco as the likely candidate, according to people familiar with the matter.

Cruise has laid off nearly one-quarter of its workforce and slashed expenses across hardware, operations, and real estate. The company aims to rebuild public trust and address the safety and technical issues that led to the October incident. In that case, a pedestrian struck by another vehicle became trapped under a Cruise robotaxi, which then moved several feet before stopping. California regulators accused Cruise of withholding key video evidence. The company says that was not intentional.

Cruise has since overhauled its leadership, replacing its CEO and appointing a new chief safety officer. It also hired a law firm to investigate its handling of the incident and pledged to increase transparency with regulators and the public.

The wind-down in Austin and Phoenix marks a significant retrenchment for a company that previously targeted rapid geographic expansion in 2023. At its peak, Cruise was operating in more than a dozen U.S. cities with plans to scale aggressively. Now, its footprint has shrunk to a fraction of that.

The company has not said when it expects to return to fully autonomous operations at scale. For now, it will continue limited testing with human drivers and aim to meet stricter safety benchmarks before restarting driverless services.