GM's Cruise Rethinks Its Robotaxi Strategy After Admitting a Software Fault in Gruesome Crash

In August 2016, WIRED visited the San Francisco offices of a young startup recently snapped up by a surprising buyer. General Motors acquired three-year-old Cruise for a reported $1 billion in hopes the straitlaced Detroit automaker could coopt the self-driving technology tipped to disrupt the auto industry. Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt--a scrappy Twitch cofounder who competed as a teen in BattleBots--said he intended to stick around, but to keep running the driverless-car tech developer like a startup. He'd be out of a job, he predicted, if he couldn't hack the self-driving thing in 10 to 15 years. GM's financial reports show it losing $8.2 billion on Cruise since the start of 2017, and it has sunk at least $1.9 billion into the company this year.