GM

Steve Kenner has held safety-related positions at Apple and Uber, as well as autonomous vehicle companies like Aurora, Kodiak Robotics, and Locomation. He’ll be in charge of making sure Cruise adheres to safety standards as it seeks to re-deploy its robotaxis in San Francisco and beyond. The GM-owned company is trying to rebuild its reputation — and get back its operations permit — in the wake of an incident in which a pedestrian was stuck and dragged by one of its autonomous vehicles.

Kevin Kelty was the former battery tech chief at Tesla during the infamous “production hell” Model 3 ramp. He’ll take the role of Vice President of Batteries and will report directly to GM President Mark Reuss. He worked at Tesla for 11 years and Panasonic for 15 years, so safe to say that if he can’t help GM get its stuff together, no one can.

Case in point: General Motors just inked a deal with South Korea’s LG Chem for $19 billion — yes, billion with a “b” — worth of EV battery material. That’s one of the largest EV supply deals of all time. The money will be spent over a decade and will fund the start of cathode production at the Tennessee plant operated by the two companies’ joint venture.

It sounds promising, after GM CEO Mary Barra said in an earnings call this morning that the automaker would be bringing back plug-in hybrids.

The company has taken a $1.6 billion hit related to unsold electric vehicles as growth across the EV market continues to slow. EV sales reached $2.1 billion in GM’s fourth quarter, up from the $2.0 billion reported last year.

Ford says half of its dealers in the US, or around 1,550, are opting to sell electric and hybrid vehicles in 2024. That’s down from around two-thirds of dealers that said they would sell EVs about a year ago.

Verge contributor Kevin Williams has a harrowing tale about his first test ride of the new Chevy Blazer EV in InsideEVs. First, the infotainment display disappeared. Then it came back but started flashing. Then the instrument cluster crapped out. And after plugging into a fast charger, the whole thing just kind of gave up.

Reuters reports GM-backed robotaxi startup Cruise told employees:

Yesterday, we linked to a MotorTrend story paraphrasing GM infotainment head Tim Babbitt saying CarPlay and Android Auto can actually distract drivers. In an email to The Verge, GM communications director Anna Yu said his comments weren’t accurately reflected, calling Apple and Google “valued” partners. She added:

MotorTrend paraphrased GM infotainment boss Tim Babbitt’s reasoning for ditching Android and Apple:

Skipping the gas station is one of the most freeing aspects of switching to an EV, but sometimes people miss it for the amenities — like using those squeegees to clean their windshields while refueling.

General Motors’ willingness to lose a ton of money on self-driving cars is coming to an end, with the automaker planning to announce that it will slash spending on Cruise in a call on Wednesday. A pedestrian was seriously injured last month when a Cruise vehicle drug her 20 feet after a hit-and-run crash.

His resignation follows an accident where a pedestrian who was struck by another vehicle became trapped underneath a Cruise robotaxi, which dragged her as it attempted to pull over. Rescuers needed to use the jaws of life to free her after Cruise disabled the vehicle.

Vice Motherboard reported yesterday that Cruise’s email summary of the accident said the car “hard-braked but was unable to stop” before hitting a pedestrian. But it didn’t mention that the car then pulled over, dragging the person with it.

Cruise continues to try to clean up the mess from a crash in early October that resulted in a woman being drug 20 feet underneath a driverless car. To hear more about it, you can check out my recent interview with Marketplace’s Matt Levin. We mostly spoke about the piece I wrote about the AV industry’s ongoing trust issues.

BrightDrop, which makes electric delivery vans, fleet management software, and a bunch of other commercial products, spun out of General Motors in early 2021. But now it’s getting spun back in (?) the main company, with GM citing “efficiencies” as the main reason. GM says production of the Zevo electric van will resume in spring 2024.

Cruise’s robotaxis are front and center of the industry’s trust issue after losing their California permit following an incident where a pedestrian ended up stuck underneath one of its cars.

After producing hundreds of the self-driving vans already, “we did make the decision with GM to pause production of the Origin,” said Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt in leaked audio obtained by Forbes and later confirmed by GM. The decision comes after Cruise recently halted its robotaxi services nationwide. The company is on a trust-building campaign after California suspended Cruise’s operating license, calling autonomous vehicles a public risk.