General Moters' self-driving-car unit, Cruise, is shaking up its leadership after the company lost permits needed to operate in California and paused its operations. On Sunday, Cruise Chief Executive Kyle Vogt announced he was resigning. Vogt, who co-founded Cruise in 2013, announced his departure on the social media site X, formerly Twitter. He didn't say why he was leaving but said he planned to spend more time with family and "explore some new ideas." "Cruise is still just getting started, and I believe it has a great future ahead," Vogt said on X.

As Waymo robotaxis plucked up passengers for free this week in Santa Monica and Venice, worry grew among Los Angeles officials about the safety of driverless cars on city streets. Mayor Bass asked regulators Wednesday to increase their scrutiny of automated taxis and said the city should have a say in how they are regulated. The move comes after a Cruise robotaxi dragged a person down a San Francisco street last month and the company allegedly failed to disclose the footage to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV suspended the General Motors-owned company's permits and Cruise has since announced it will suspend U.S. operations. The incident in San Francisco -- where the two driverless fleets were doing business -- was among several that raised red flags among Los Angeles officials, who have begun to see more and more robotaxis being tested on city streets.

In the wake of California withdrawing Cruise's permit to operate self-driving cars in the state, the company said on Friday it's suspending all U.S. robotaxi operations. The move comes after the California Department of Motor Vehicles alleged that Cruise withheld from regulators video footage of a Cruise robotaxi dragging a person down a city street. The future for the company is anybody's guess. Its parent company, General Motors, has lost $1.9 billion on Cruise thus far this year, including a $732-million loss in the third quarter, according to its latest earnings report. Competitor Ford shut down its Argo robotaxi unit in 2002, concluding that the possibility of far-off profits weren't worth the enormous cash drain.

A Cruise autonomous vehicle (AV) was reportedly involved in a horrific accident in San Francisco on Monday evening. A pedestrian crossing a street was hit by a car, which sped off. However, the hit-and-run hurled her in front of a Cruise driverless taxi, which stopped on top of her leg as she screamed in pain. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the woman was still in critical condition at 9:30AM ET on Tuesday. The pedestrian was reportedly walking in a crosswalk at Market and Fifth in San Francisco when she was hit by a green car, which fled the scene.

Cruise will temporarily be deploying fewer autonomous vehicles in San Francisco while investigators are looking into "recent concerning incidents" involving its fleet. According to The New York Times and TechCrunch, the California Department of Motor Vehicles asked the company to cut its fleet in half after an incident wherein one of Cruise's robotaxis collided with a fire truck at an intersection. The fire truck had its sirens and red lights on and was responding to an emergency at the time, while the robotaxi has passengers onboard who sustained non-life-threatening injuries. In another, perhaps less controversial, incident a few days before that, a Cruise vehicle got stuck in wet concrete. The DMV said in a statement that its primary focus is "the safe operation of autonomous vehicles and safety of the public who share the road with these vehicles." It also added that it "reserves the right, following investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits" if it determines that a company's vehicles is a threat to public safety.

A Cruise self-driving car appeared to hinder first responders as they tried to access the scene of a mass shooting in San Francisco's Mission District on Friday night, raising concerns about robotaxis' ability to safely offer rides throughout the city. Emergency crews were responding to a shooting on 24th Street shortly after 9pm in which nine people were injured. In a video posted to Twitter, a Cruise self-driving car is seen in the road as an officer approaches it and says it's "blocking emergency medical and fire. I've got to get it out of here now." In a statement, Cruise maintained that the car did not block emergency access to the scene "at any point".

The robotics industry had its fair share of memorable moments in 2022. Here we take a look back at our picks for the most memorable robotics stories of the year. The list is comprised of moments that made us laugh and cringe, as well as moments that left us surprised or amazed at the capabilities of various robots. Please let us know in the comments what you'll remember most from 2022. Subscribe to The Robot Report Newsletter to stay updated on the robotics stories you need to know about.

Tuesday night was the night. I rode in one of Cruise's fleet of driverless robotaxis in San Francisco for the first time. Thanks to an Austrian friend who already had access to the Cruise app, we hopped into one of the driverless cars at around 11 p.m., went out for a few drinks, and then headed back in another Cruise robotaxi, again driverless. Here is the first video with some driverless Cruises we saw while waiting for ours. Also watch out for minute 7:56 to see the coyotes.