It s a Hummer, GM, but not as we know it
Well, that was 2020, a year none of us will forget in a hurry. Editor Dave Leggett takes a look back month-by-month through the prism of just-auto s industry coverage. Safe to say, things didn t quite go quite as expected for anyone in 2020. This second part covers the second half of the year.
July
Ineos Automotive reveals the exterior design of the Grenadier, its upcoming, no-nonsense 4×4 vehicle for the world . (There s a bit of controversy later in the year on the manufacturing plans though.)
August
Ford announced that Jim Hackett is to pass on the CEO reins to COO Jim Farley. The consensus reaction seems to be that Hackett has laid the groundwork to put Ford on a better platform - with a number of significant steps taken, in terms of internal organisation and also product offerings - to address the major auto industry challenges ahead, but that it was unspectacular as far as investors were concerned. The Ford share price stubbornly
Cruise grabs ex-Delta COO to shepherd robotaxis to the road
Chris Davies - Jan 8, 2021, 1:07pm CST
Cruise AV, the GM-backed autonomous vehicle startup aiming to replace cabs with driverless electric pods, has brought in the big guns as it readies for a broad robotaxi rollout. Gil West, former Delta Air Lines Chief Operating Officer, has joined Cruise as its new COO, where he’ll be responsible for figuring out how to launch autonomy at scale.
“Large robotaxi deployments are operationally very similar to large airlines,” Kyle Vogt, president and CTO at Cruise, pointed out in announcing the new hire today. “Just like airliners, each AV needs to be charged, cleaned, serviced, and repaired. May involve large-scale, fixed-infrastructure hubs, but will also involve large floating / distributed / outsourced infrastructure.”