General Motors’ Cruise autonomous car subsidiary has had a bumpy few months, with high-profile incidents and a halt in operations while it worked out its flaws. The troubled subsidiary no longer sponsors its home baseball team, the San Francisco Giants. Still, the partnership will be transferred to Chevrolet—with a visual emphasis on the “EV” in the moniker.
Though that sounds like a strong rebound for Cruise, the company had already planned to deploy 100 chargers as part of its original agreement. A Giants spokeswoman stated that the transition was expected and that they did not know when or if Cruise would return as a sponsor. Chevrolet has a lengthy history with the MLB as the official vehicle sponsor, having sponsored 14 teams over the past two decades.
Cruise lost permission to operate in California, but recent rumors indicate it is preparing for testing in Texas. Houston and Dallas are on the table, and the corporation had a small fleet in Austin before the controversy began. Cruise said it had not set a specific schedule for the Texas launch but intended to begin in a single city with supervised testing.
The company cut 25% of its workers, its CEO left, and it appointed a new chief safety officer, so operations may appear very different than previously. Whatever the organizational structure, the corporation recognizes that it will face significant challenges in regaining the trust of regulators and the general public.
