Kiwi in Cruise control
GM president Dan Ammann, right, with Cruise chief operating officer Dan Kan, left, and Kyle Vogt.
New Zealand-born Dan Ammann will run General Motors’ autonomous vehicles operation Cruise Automation from January 1, 2019.
He is deeply familiar with Cruise’s business and technology and its team and will be its chief executive officer, the company says.
As GM president, Ammann spearheaded the 2016 Cruise acquisition and, among his other global responsibilities, oversaw GM’s relationship with Cruise.
Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt will partner with Ammann to set strategic direction for the company and will lead technology development as Cruise president and chief technology officer.
An industry leader in autonomous vehicle technology, Cruise has grown from about 40 employees to more than 1000 at its San Francisco headquarters and recently announced an additional expansion of 100-200 employees in Seattle.
Investments by SoftBank and Honda have helped see Cruise’s valuation rise to US$14.6 billion.
“These appointments further demonstrate our commitment to transforming mobility through the safe deployment of self-driving technology and move us closer to our vision for a future with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” GM chairman and chief executive officer Mary Barra says.
Ammann says he excited about dedicating his time and energy to helping Cruise realise its mission of deploying this technology at scale.
Cruise has reportedly been preparing to use its autonomous technology in a ride-hailing service in 2019.
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