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Kyle Vogt was removed from the CEO position in late 2018 after Cruise failed to make progress toward a number of milestones. The milestones were outlined as par

Kyle Vogt was removed from the CEO position in late 2018 after Cruise failed to make progress toward a number of milestones. The milestones were outlined as part of the Cruise acquisition. Dan Ammann took over and made really substantial progress. Ammann is widely considered to be the reason Cruise is where it is today. His record of success was in sharp contrast to Vogt's consistent record of failure. Unfortunately, Ammann disagreed with GM's CEO about Cruise's future as a business. Employees at my level of seniority don't know the details, but many of us are skeptical that Kyle is the right man for the job.

technofiend 5y ago
At least according to Tech Crunch it was because Ammann also failed to deliver something on Barra's agenda [1]: And while Ammann continued to push the company to expand, there were missed targets, notably the plan to launch a commercial robotaxi business in 2019. The company has spent the past two years inching toward that commercialization goal, along with the rest of the industry, which has gone through a spate of consolidation. Most likely that's a lot harder to get done than anyone thinks. Is Vogt really the guy to make it happen? I guess we'll find out. But GM sending an otherwise successful VP packing after more than a decade there signals they are looking to shake things up. GM is not Silicon Valley and even senior execs IMHO enjoy longer tenures that you'd find in the Valley. They also skipped over the whole reassigning him to another role / oh he's left to pursue other interests tap dancing you often see to give people some runway or cover to leave. Not sure whether to read anything into that or if that's just how Barra operates. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/16/longtime-gm-exec-dan-ammann-is-out-as-cruise-ceo/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/16/longtime-gm-exec-dan-amman...
- deleted 5y ago
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- reTensor 5y ago
  The failure to launch in 2019 was shortly after Ammann took over (late 2018). Ammann inherited Vogt's mess, and at that time nobody in management fully understood how bad the situation was. Ammann promptly began fixing things and we see the fruits of that today. Ammann's departure, to the best of our knowledge, is a result of a conflict with GM's CEO regarding the future of Cruise as a business. Hopefully Vogt can preserve, and successfully build on, what Ammann accomplished.
  - omeze 5y ago
    fully appreciate if you can't go into detail, but what changed? It seems like they'd always been working towards robotaxi-ing from a product perspective so it must have come down to execution-level stuff, no?
ghostedbycruise 5y ago
what is Cruise's hiring process like atm? I'm very interested in the AV space as a new grad and have worked on a relevant project with a real vehicle, but never heard back. Is MS the bare minimum required?
- BoorishBears 5y ago
  I have no degree and got to an onsite with Cruise before cancelling for another role Ironically I ended up canceling in large part because of the CEO spat.. it gave me some uncertainty about if they were committed to L5. Especially vs serving as GM's L3 supplier while paying L5 lip service indefinitely (and never going public)

technofiend 5y ago

At least according to Tech Crunch it was because Ammann also failed to deliver something on Barra's agenda [1]: And while Ammann continued to push the company to expand, there were missed targets, notably the plan to launch a commercial robotaxi business in 2019. The company has spent the past two years inching toward that commercialization goal, along with the rest of the industry, which has gone through a spate of consolidation. Most likely that's a lot harder to get done than anyone thinks. Is Vogt really the guy to make it happen? I guess we'll find out. But GM sending an otherwise successful VP packing after more than a decade there signals they are looking to shake things up. GM is not Silicon Valley and even senior execs IMHO enjoy longer tenures that you'd find in the Valley. They also skipped over the whole reassigning him to another role / oh he's left to pursue other interests tap dancing you often see to give people some runway or cover to leave. Not sure whether to read anything into that or if that's just how Barra operates. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/16/longtime-gm-exec-dan-ammann-is-out-as-cruise-ceo/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/16/longtime-gm-exec-dan-amman...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
reTensor 5y ago
The failure to launch in 2019 was shortly after Ammann took over (late 2018). Ammann inherited Vogt's mess, and at that time nobody in management fully understood how bad the situation was. Ammann promptly began fixing things and we see the fruits of that today. Ammann's departure, to the best of our knowledge, is a result of a conflict with GM's CEO regarding the future of Cruise as a business. Hopefully Vogt can preserve, and successfully build on, what Ammann accomplished.
- omeze 5y ago
  fully appreciate if you can't go into detail, but what changed? It seems like they'd always been working towards robotaxi-ing from a product perspective so it must have come down to execution-level stuff, no?

ghostedbycruise 5y ago

what is Cruise's hiring process like atm? I'm very interested in the AV space as a new grad and have worked on a relevant project with a real vehicle, but never heard back. Is MS the bare minimum required?

BoorishBears 5y ago
I have no degree and got to an onsite with Cruise before cancelling for another role Ironically I ended up canceling in large part because of the CEO spat.. it gave me some uncertainty about if they were committed to L5. Especially vs serving as GM's L3 supplier while paying L5 lip service indefinitely (and never going public)