The Senior Vice President of Autonomous Vehicle Platforms at General Motors Co‘s GM autonomous driving unit Cruise, Carl Jenkins, announced on Thursday his resignation from the company, adding to the series of executive departures since the suspension of operations in the United States last year.
What Happened: Jenkins revealed his resignation through a LinkedIn post, citing his six “incredible” years at Cruise. The executive did not divulge his future plans but hinted at them being “completely different.”
“…for now I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to the Cruise HW that I built from 20 to circa 750 that developed amazingly unique L4 HW from silicon, computer, telematic modules through all types of sensor modalities and end to end product development working closely with GM,” Jenkins wrote in his post.
Why It Matters: Following a pedestrian accident in San Francisco in early October involving one of its autonomous vehicles, Cruise suspended both autonomous and manual AV operations in the United States. Since then, both of Cruise’s co-founders including CEO Kyle Vogt and chief product officer Dan Kan have stepped down.
GM reported an operating loss of $3.48 billion at Cruise in 2023, compared to a loss of $3.24 billion in 2022. Despite these challenges, GM CEO Mary Barra emphasized the company’s commitment to Cruise during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call last month and said that it would be relaunched. However, the parent company did not provide a roadmap for relaunch.
Barra indicated that while Cruise’s spending would be significantly reduced this year, investments would continue in developing self-driving software, specialized hardware, and other AI capabilities.
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