GM is Officially Back In The AV Race But Not In The Way Most Think (Risky Business?)

GM be like: “I’ve changed, I swear…” 

After killing off its $50 billion robotaxi dream last year… complete with a pedestrian-injury scandal, nine execs fired, and a CEO resignation… GM is now quietly texting “u up?” to the autonomous vehicle world. Case in point: According to Bloomberg, the automaker is trying to lure back some of its old Cruise employees to help build a new driverless car.

(Source: Giphy) 

The twist though, is that this one’s NOT for the robotaxi wars. It’s for personal use. The game plan starts with “hands-free, eyes-free” driving with a human still in the car… and eventually aims for a car that doesn’t need you at all. In other words, GM is skipping the Uber clone phase and going straight for “shrink-wrapped sci-fi sedan in your driveway.” Bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for ‘em…

(Source: Bloomberg) 

The project is being led by none other than Elon’s version of “the one who got away”, a.k.a. Sterling Anderson, the guy who once ran Tesla’s Autopilot program and most recently worked at Aurora Innovation on autonomous trucking. He pitched the plan to GM staff on Aug. 6, saying autonomy is still “the future,” and that GM is staffing up in Mountain View to make it happen. The automaker is also running lidar-equipped test cars on public roads to log the data needed to train its systems.

So, the question is… why TF now? Mary Barra, GM’s CEO, has made it clear she’s not letting the driverless dream die, even after Cruise imploded. She called autonomy one of GM’s “clear priorities” on last quarter’s earnings call… right alongside domestic supply chain expansion and battery tech. However, the Cruise collapse wasn’t just a disaster; it was a financial black hole. Developing a full robotaxi network was too expensive, too slow, and too exposed to regulators with zero patience for self-driving hit-and-runs.

(Source: Giphy) 

Therefore, by pivoting to a personal-use model, GM dodges the most brutal parts of the robotaxi economics… namely, scaling a fleet and constantly fighting city-by-city political battles. But the competitive landscape is still stacked AF. Tesla, Waymo, Apple (maybe), and every well-funded EV startup with a Lidar fetish are all circling the same goalpost… and the heat is only ramping up. 

Of course, GM doesn’t have a public target date for its personal AV launch anymore… a telling walk-back from its old mid-decade promise. In the meantime, the company is threading autonomy development into its existing Super Cruise platform, so it can monetize pieces of the tech before the fully driverless version arrives. Translation: “Let's milk this cow for as much as it’s worth before it implodes… again.” 

(Source: Giphy) 

Meaning, if it works, GM gets to resell the self-driving dream to consumers without the operational and regulatory nightmare of running a taxi fleet. If it fails… well, at least this time they can say they didn’t spend another $50 billion learning the same lesson twice. So yeah… one can only imagine the highly awkward convo’s that are happening with former employees right now  LOL. For now though, keep your eyes on this story and place your bets accordingly. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Tesla and Apple as mentioned in the article.