In an earnings report released Tuesday, General Motors (NYSE: GM) reported an operating loss of $3.48 billion for its autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise LLC for the full year of 2023.
This is a slight increase from 2022, where the automaker lost $3.24 billion.
On a cash flow basis, Cruise did a little better in 2023, losing $1.9 billion from operations.
San Francisco-based Cruise has been unraveling in recent months, after its license to operate in California was revoked by state regulators following a grisly crash, where a driverless Cruise vehicle malfunctioned and dragged a woman 20 feet while executing a pull over maneuver.
The company has since parted ways with co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt, laid off over 500 employees and launched an internal investigation into how the company dealt with regulators following the accident.
GM has signaled last year that it will be pulling back its investment on Cruise, freezing operations of its robotaxis across the country and halting production of a new model of Cruise-branded vehicles with no driver's seat.
Cruise's woes could be good news for GM investors, at least in the near term, as the automaker expects to spend significantly less on autonomous vehicle development in 2024. GM shares rose 2% in Wednesday trading.
"In connection with the pause in operations and Cruise's refocused operational strategy, we recorded restructuring charges of $0.5 billion in the three months ended December 31, 2023, and also expect reductions of approximately $1.0 billion in Cruise expenses in 2024," GM said in its earning statement.
Cruise's main competitor Waymo, an autonomous vehicle company owned by Google parent Alphabet, is still taking fares for its robotaxis in San Francisco. However, its financials are more difficult to parse.
In an earnings report by Alphabet released Tuesday, Waymo losses and revenue were lumped into a category called "Other Bets," which also included some heath care and internet services. These other bets cost Alphabet $4.64 billion in operating losses in 2023.
While the exact losses from Waymo is unknown, activist investor TCI Fund Management has called for the company to reduce expenditures on the autonomous vehicle subsidiary based on heavy losses in the "Other Bets" segment.
