Kyle Vogt, the serial entrepreneur who co-founded and led Cruise from a startup in a garage through its acquisition and ownership by General Motors, has resigned, according to an email sent to employees Sunday afternoon and seen TechCrunch.
In a separate internal email, also seen by TechCrunch, GM president and CEO Mary Barra announced that Mo Elshenawy, who is executive vice president of engineering at Cruise, will serve as president and CTO for Cruise. Cruise board member and GM EVP of legal and policy Craig Glidden, who was recently named Cruise’s chief administrative officer, will continue in that role. GM board member Jon McNeill has been named vice chairman of Cruise’s board. McNeil, who recently joined Cruise’s board and was previously CEO at Lyft and president of Tesla, will now serve alongside Cruise Board Chair Mary Barra. A statement from a Cruise representative confirms Barra’s email.
As of Sunday, no one had been named to the CEO position.
The executive shakeup comes less than a month after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruz’s licenses to operate autonomous vehicles on public roads after one Incident of October 2 that saw a pedestrian — who had initially been hit by a human-driven car and landed in the path of a Cruise robotaxi — fall on top of him and be dragged 20 feet by the AV. A video, seen by TechCrunch a day after the incident, showed the robotaxi braking aggressively and coming to a stop on top of the woman. The DMV suspension order said Cruz withheld about seven seconds of video, which showed the robotaxi then trying to pull over and then drag the woman 20 feet.
Vogt’s email sent to all employees — and seen by TechCrunch — reads:
I have resigned from my position as CEO of Cruise.
The past 10 years have been amazing and I am grateful to everyone who has helped Cruise along the way. The startup I started in my garage has delivered over 250,000 driverless rides in multiple cities, with each ride inspiring people with a little taste of the future.
The cruise is still in its infancy and I believe it has a great future ahead of it. You are all brilliant, dynamic and resilient. I am deeply saddened that I will no longer be working alongside you. However, I know you have a very strong multi-year technology roadmap and an exciting product vision, and I’m excited to see what Cruise has in store for its next chapter!
Cruisers, you got this! Regardless of what initially drew you to work in AV, remember why this work matters. The status quo on our streets sucks, but together we’ve proven that there’s something much better just around the corner.
Vogt also posted a message Sunday afternoon on the X social networking site that used similar language to the internal email. End the social media thread with this message “As for what’s next for me, I plan to spend time with my family and explore some new ideas. Thanks for the great ride!”
Barra’s internal email, sent about 15 minutes after Vogt sent his, thanked him for this “tremendous vision, passion and dedication over the past decade.” The email continued:
“The Cruise Board understands and respects his decision to step down as CEO and we wish him well in his next chapter. We continue to believe strongly in Cruise’s mission and the potential of its transformative technology as we strive to make transportation safer, cleaner and more affordable.”
Barra later emphasized that “the board and I also want you to know that we are intensely focused on setting Cruise up for long-term success. Public trust is essential for this. As we work to rebuild that trust, security, transparency and accountability will be our north stars.”
Morale at Cruise has been low since the Oct. 2 incident, with employees pointing the finger at poor management that did not prioritize safety at the company. Without commercial licenses to operate in San Francisco and an internal decision to stop driverless fleets in other states, the company laid off contract workers, further deepening the malaise.
Initial layoffs included contract workers tasked with cleaning, charging and maintaining the vehicles as well as answering customer support inquiries. Not all temporary workers, who are employed by third parties, were dismissed. However, more layoffs are expected at the company, which employs about 4,000 full-time workers.
Workers’ discontent was further fueled last week when Cruise has suspended its employee stock sale program for the fourth quarter. Sources who spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity said they could lose upwards of tens of thousands of dollars as a result of this decision.
Over the weekend, Cruz walked back that move. Vogt sent an email on Saturday saying some employees could sell a limited number of shares at one time. Vogt did not provide many details, but said the company is developing a plan to conduct a new auction to provide limited liquidity of stock units to mitigate the potential tax impact. TechCrunch has seen the email.
Vogt went on to offer his staff a blanket apology for the “state Cruise is in today.”
Vogt and Cruise’s chief product officer, Dan Kan, founded the autonomous vehicle company in 2013. Initially, the pair focused on kits that could retrofit a vehicle and turn it into a self-driving car. The startup soon turned to a different business model. GM was also interested acquired the company in March 2016 in a cash and stock deal valued at more than $1 billion.
Previously, Vogt co-founded Justin.tv, a website that allowed anyone to broadcast video online, Twitch, a live streaming platform, and Socialcam, a mobile social video app. Twitch was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million and Socialcam by Autodesk for $60 million in 2012.
