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What Happened: Cruise is planning to restart robotaxi testing in Texas, with safety drivers, in the coming weeks, Bloomberg reported. The potential locations for the tests are Houston and Dallas, the report added.
Cruise did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.
Why It Matters: Following a pedestrian accident involving one of its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco in early October, Cruise suspended both autonomous and manual AV operations in the United States. Since then, several key executives have stepped down from the company including its two co-founders Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan.
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 then.
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.
