Detroit – General Motors’ Cruise’s self-driving car unit on Tuesday announced former Amazon and Microsoft executive Marc Whitten as its new chief executive.
Wheaton was a founding engineer of Microsoft’s Xbox became the chief product officer of audio company Sonos in 2014 after leaving the company for more than 17 years, according to LinkedIn profile. He then worked in Amazon Served as Vice President of Entertainment Devices and Services before serving as Chief Product and Technology Officer of the software development company Uniteof creation.
His appointment comes at a critical time for Cruise, which is testing and relaunching its self-driving cars on public roads. On October 2, a pedestrian was dragged 20 feet by a Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco, and the company ceased operations just weeks after the incident.
Several key leaders, including Cruise CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt, left the company following the incident.
“Marc is a proven technology and business leader with extensive experience scaling products and building ecosystems around them,” said Mary Barra, GM CEO and Chairman. He is also the head of Cruise’s board of directors, said in a press release. “Throughout his career, he has inspired innovation and driven growth in complex, fast-paced environments, which I believe is critical to Cruise’s vision of creating technology that delivers real, tangible benefits to society.”
GM and Cruise ordered a third-party investigation into the October crash, which found that cultural issues, incompetence and poor leadership exacerbated supervisory negligence that ultimately led to the crash. The inquiry also looked into allegations of a cover-up by Cruise’s leadership, but investigators found no evidence to support those claims.
In the interim, San Francisco-based Cruise has sought to expand its business into a revenue-generating business for General Motors, which has been the majority owner since acquiring the company in 2016. honda carsMicrosoft , T. Rowe Price and Walmart.
As of this month, Cruise has resumed supervised driving in Phoenix, Houston and Dallas, in addition to ongoing testing in Dubai. The company has not yet restarted in San Francisco, where it remains under investigation related to the crash.
Cruise is a key part of GM’s plan to double revenue to $280 billion by the end of this decade.
GM announced Wheaton’s appointment and other top executive changes. The automaker said Nick Mulholland, head of communications, Rivianwill become Cruise’s chief marketing and communications officer.
The automaker said Craig Glidden, who previously served as General Motors’ legal and chief policy officer, will also join Cruise as president and chief administrative officer, responsible for legal, government affairs, finance, communications and human resources. . in a separate version Tuesday.
Glidden will be joined by former employees at Activision Blizzard and boeing company.
“General Motors is an iconic company that I have always admired,” Dixton said in a statement. “I’m excited for the opportunity to work with Mary, her leadership team and GM’s strong legal and policy teams to help the company realize its bold vision and continue to deliver vehicles that customers love around the world.”
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