What happened to Cruise?
Cruise, General Motors' robotaxi subsidiary, is no longer running a robotaxi service. GM wound down Cruise's robotaxi operations in December 2024. The registry holds 12 incidents across its operating life. The turning point was October 2, 2023, when a Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco dragged a pedestrian about 20 feet after she was struck into its path by another vehicle. California suspended Cruise's driverless permits within weeks, Cruise paused operations nationwide, and in 2024 federal regulators fined the company $1.5 million for failing to fully report that crash, while the Justice Department reached a $500,000 agreement over a false report. The timeline below is drawn from the registry, each event linked to its record. Incidents are reports, not fault determinations.
Drawn live from the DEPLOY registry. How we verify.
The October 2023 turning point
The defining event was October 2, 2023, in San Francisco. A pedestrian, first struck by a human-driven vehicle, was thrown into the path of a Cruise robotaxi, which stopped and then attempted a pullover that dragged her about 20 feet. California suspended Cruise's driverless permit on October 24, 2023, citing the company's failure to fully disclose the dragging to regulators. Cruise paused operations nationwide, and CEO Kyle Vogt resigned in November 2023. These are reports and records, not fault determinations.
Why Cruise ended and Waymo did not
Both Cruise and Waymo were running driverless service at commercial scale in 2023, and both faced safety incidents and regulatory inquiries. The difference was the record behind each: Waymo's rested on multi-year operational data and a long-running permit relationship, while Cruise's was newer, and the October 2023 incident plus the disclosure failure it was found to have made produced a loss of regulator trust the company did not recover. It is the clearest case of how disclosure conduct, not just technology, decides a robotaxi operator's standing.
The timeline
Every event below is a record in the DEPLOY registry, ordered oldest first. Each links to its own record, where the sources live. The marker shows the record's posture: DEPLOY VERIFIED records cleared the review bar; company-claimed records are on file but not yet independently verified. These are reports and records, not fault determinations.
| 2022-08-29 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2023-01-22 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 2 | |
| 2023-04-03 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2023-04-03 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2023-05-09 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2023-08-17 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2023-10-02 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 6 | |
| 2023-10-24 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 2 | |
| 2023-11-07 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2023-11-07 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2024-08-09 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2024-08-22 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 2 | |
| 2024-09-30 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 | |
| 2024-11-14 | DEPLOY VERIFIED | 1 |
California suspended Cruise's driverless permits in October 2023, about three weeks after the pedestrian-dragging incident; Cruise then pulled its driverless vehicles off public roads nationwide. GM wound down Cruise's robotaxi operations in December 2024.
Context
The turning point
The defining event was October 2, 2023, in San Francisco. A pedestrian, first struck by a human-driven vehicle, was thrown into the path of a Cruise robotaxi, which stopped and then attempted a pullover that dragged her about 20 feet. California suspended Cruise's driverless permit on October 24, 2023, citing the company's failure to fully disclose the dragging to regulators. Cruise paused operations nationwide, and CEO Kyle Vogt resigned in November 2023.
Why Cruise ended and Waymo did not
Both Cruise and Waymo were running driverless service at commercial scale in 2023, and both faced safety incidents and regulatory inquiries. The difference was the record behind each: Waymo's rested on multi-year operational data and a long-running permit relationship, while Cruise's was newer, and the October 2023 incident plus the disclosure failure it was found to have made produced a loss of regulator trust the company did not recover. It is the clearest case of how disclosure conduct, not just technology, decides a robotaxi operator's standing.
Can you ride Cruise today?
No. Cruise does not offer a consumer robotaxi service in any market as of 2026. The verified alternatives are Waymo and, in a limited Austin pilot, Tesla. See where you can ride a robotaxi.
Notify me if Cruise's status changes.
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This timeline is drawn live from the DEPLOY registry: each event is a record with its own sources, and the marker shows whether it cleared the DEPLOY review bar (verified) or is on file but not yet independently verified (company-claimed). Incidents are reports, not fault determinations. How we verify
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