Cruise Origin AV robotaxi production stops

General Motors doesn’t intend building any of its Cruise Origin autonomous vehicles (AVs) during 2024.

A few prototypes will be built in the final weeks of 2023, according to Automotive News, possibly for use on private GM testing grounds.

GM hasn’t said how many Origin units it produced this year or the number of additional prototypes it will complete before suspending production indefinitely.

Former Cruise chief executive Kyle Vogt, who founded the robotaxi service but recently resigned after he apologised to employees for problems that led to action from state (California) and federal regulators in the wake of a series of accidents involving pedestrians (also reported on CNN), earlier indicated several hundred Origin vehicles had already been built.

Cruise cofounder Dan Kan has also reportedly left the company.

A while back, Vogt was confident Origin would get National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) approval for deployment on public streets in the US, but federal safety standards require manual steering controls and pedals (both not on Origin’s standard design).

The Cruise Origin is designed to succeed Cruise AVs, small vehicles modified from Chevy Bolt EV units, and GM Authority reports the Origin is “crucial” to GM’s future robotaxi plans.

Large-scale production, if and when it resumes, will be at Factory Zero (formerly the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Centre) – an all-EV assembly plant.