Carl Jenkins, senior vice president for autonomous vehicle platforms at General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi division, has resigned, marking the latest in a series of leadership withdrawals at the embattled self-driving car subsidiary.
The exit ends Jenkins’ six years with the company, during which he oversaw hardware development in partnership with General Motors. The former autonomous vehicle platforms chief announced his departure on LinkedIn on Thursday, February 15. However, neither the social media post nor an internal message from Cruise co-president Mo Elshenawy obtained by Reuters contained an explanation for the resignation.
Instead, Elshenawy emphasized the future of the Cruise brand while still acknowledging that the news was unexpected. “While we’re in a transitional period right now, all of us here at Cruise are getting to define what comes next – that’s an incredibly exciting place to be,” he stated in the message. Elsehnawy also reassured the autonomous vehicle platforms team that their efforts were “central to our ‘Back to the Mission’ work, to improving our detection systems, compute and sensor suites for current and future programs so we can return to the road as soon as possible.”
But “what comes next” remains uncertain. The self-driving vehicle subsidiary has lost multiple chiefs since one of its units hit and dragged a pedestrian last October in California. Shortly after, state regulators accused the company of obfuscating the truth in its accident report to local agencies, resulting in multiple investigations, both internal and external, and the suspension of all Cruise vehicles from operation. Jenkins’ departure follows the termination of nine key team leaders in December 2023 and the resignations of CEO Kyle Vogt and co-founder Dan Kan last November. The autonomous vehicle brand recently hired Steve Kenner, former Apple and Ford executive, as it’s new safety chief.
