By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – General Motors’ robotaxi unit Cruise said on Tuesday it has named a former xBox founder as the new CEO of the U.S. automaker’s troubled self-driving vehicle business.
Marc Whitten will take over as CEO on July 16, Cruise announced. Cruise has had two co-presidents leading the company since Kyle Vogt stepped down as CEO last year amid fallout from an accident involving one of its self-driving vehicles in California. Both co-presidents will remain with Cruise.
Whitten was a founding partner of Xbox and Xbox Live and served as general manager and vice president at Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) for a number of entertainment devices and services. He held other positions at Sonos (NASDAQ:) and Create at Unity.
GM also said separately that Craig Glidden will remain co-president and chief administrative officer at Cruise, but will step down from his role as GM’s chief legal and public policy officer.
GM said Grant Dixton, who previously served as Chief Legal Officer of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:) and as General Counsel at Boeing (NYSE:), will become GM’s Chief Legal and Public Policy Officer on July 15. Glidden will also serve as Executive Officer. vice president and strategic advisor at GM.
Cruise has lost more than $8 billion since 2016 and has faced a series of challenges since last October, when California revoked its license to operate self-driving vehicles after an accident in which one of its robotaxis struck a pedestrian and dragged her 20 feet. . .
The Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating Cruise.
GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said this month that the automaker has invested another $850 million into Cruise, saying “this gives us time to continue our strategic review” after announcing that Cruise will be acquired this year would sharply reduce expenditure. GM CEO Mary Barra said Whitten “has driven innovation and driven growth in complex, fast-paced environments throughout his career.”
Since the accident, Cruise has fired nine executives. Vogt and company co-founder Dan Kan both resigned, and Cruise cut a quarter of its workforce. Last week, Cruise cut a small number of new jobs, a person briefed on the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The California Public Utilities Commission said last week that Cruise would pay the maximum fine of $112,500, which amounts to $7,500 for each of the 15 days in which she withheld information about the incident.
Cruise reached a settlement with the affected woman worth between $8 million and $12 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Since April, Cruise has resumed supervised autonomous driving in Phoenix, Houston and Dallas, in addition to ongoing testing in Dubai.
Cruise also said Tuesday that it has hired Rivian (NASDAQ:)’s global communications head Nick Mulholland as chief communications and marketing officer.
