🪦 Dead
GM Cruise
Product killed · Parent Pulled Funding · shut down December 10, 2024
- Born
- Died
- Lifespan
- 11y 11m
- Cause of death
- Parent Pulled Funding
- Killed by
- General Motors
- Type
- Startup
The robotaxi startup GM bought in 2016 and then poured more than $10 billion into, with Honda ($852M), Microsoft and SoftBank alongside. Driverless paid rides began in San Francisco in 2022; a 2023 crash in which a Cruise car dragged a pedestrian, and the company's handling of it, cost it its California permit. In December 2024 Mary Barra ended the program, citing the 'incremental time and capital' still needed. The most expensive AI product death on record.
Collateral damage: About 1,000 Cruise staff were cut in February 2025; Microsoft took an $800M write-down on its stake.