DETROIT – General Motors' Self-driving vehicle unit Cruise on Tuesday announced former Amazon and Microsoft executive Marc Whitten as its new CEO.
Whitten was a founding engineer in Microsoft Xbox before leaving the company after more than 17 years to become chief product officer at audio company Sonos in 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile. He then worked on Amazon as vice president of entertainment devices and services before his most recent role as director of product and technology for software development company Unity's Create.
His appointment comes at a crucial time for Cruise, which is testing and relaunching its autonomous vehicles on public roads. It stopped operating weeks after an Oct. 2 accident in which a pedestrian in San Francisco was dragged 20 feet by a Cruise robotaxi.
Following the incident, several key leaders, including Cruise CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt, left the company.
“Marc is a proven technology and business leader with extensive experience scaling products and creating ecosystems around them,” GM CEO and Chairman Mary Barra, who also leads the board, said in a statement. by Cruise. “He has driven innovation and growth in complex, fast-paced environments throughout his career, and I believe that will prove crucial to Cruise's vision of creating technology that provides real, tangible benefits to society.”
A third-party investigation into the October incident ordered by GM and Cruise found that cultural issues, ineptitude and poor leadership fueled the regulatory oversights that led to the accident. The investigation also looked into allegations of a cover-up by Cruise's leaders, but investigators found no evidence to support those claims.
During that time, San Francisco-based Cruise was trying to expand its operations into a revenue-generating business for GM, which has been the majority owner of the company since acquiring it in 2016. Other investors now include honda engineMicrosoft, T. Rowe Price and Walmart.
Starting this month, Cruise resumed supervised driving in Phoenix, Houston and Dallas, in addition to its ongoing testing in Dubai. It has not been relaunched in San Francisco, where it remains under investigation related to the crash.
Cruise was a crucial part of GM's plan to double its revenue to $280 billion by the end of this decade.
GM announced Whitten's appointment along with other executive changes. The automaker said Nick Mulholland, who led communications for rivianhe would become Cruise's director of marketing and communications.
Craig Glidden, who served as GM's chief legal and policy officer, will also join Cruise as president and chief administrative officer, responsible for legal, government affairs, finance, communications and human resources, the automaker said in a separate statement on Tuesday.
Glidden will be replaced by Grant Dixton, who held senior leadership roles at Activision Blizzard and Boeing.
“GM is an iconic company that I have always admired,” Dixton said in a statement. “I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Mary, her leadership team, and the strong existing legal and policy teams at GM to help the company achieve its bold vision while continuing to deliver vehicles that customers around the world love.” “.
