GM admits to ‘numerous’ failings in Cruise robotaxi saga

A report by the law firm Quinn Emanuel, which was paid by Cruise, outlines how executives took an adversarial approach with regulators after one of its autonomous cars struck and seriously injured a woman. Federal prosecutors are now investigating the incident, which led Cruise to halt its fleet nationwide and undercut GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra’s vision to transform the carmaker from a 20th-century metal bender to a transportation company of the future.

In a Thursday blog post, Cruise said it accepts the conclusions of the report. The company also disclosed that it’s facing probes from the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. It pledged to work with those investigations, in addition to having more robust processes for working with regulators. Kyle Vogt, former Cruise CEO, did not respond to a text message seeking comment.

“The reasons for Cruise’s failings in this instance are numerous: poor leadership, mistakes in judgment, lack of coordination, an ‘us versus them’ mentality with regulators, and a fundamental misapprehension of Cruise’s obligations of accountability and transparency to the government and the public,” the report said. “Cruise must take decisive steps to address these issues in order to restore trust and credibility.”

The report concludes that Cruise officials didn’t intentionally deceive regulators, but that their initial disclosures were inadequate.

For GM and Cruise, making the report public is a crucial step to getting its robotaxis back on the road. It’s particularly important that the companies repair relations with the state of California, which suspended Cruise’s license to operate driverless vehicles after company officials misrepresented details of the October collision in San Francisco….