Nine executives at Cruise left the company Wednesday amid an ongoing investigation into the company's handling of an incident in San Francisco where a woman was hit and dragged by a Cruise vehicle.
A Cruise spokesperson confirmed to The Standard that nine “key leaders” across the company departed “following an initial analysis of the Oct. 2 incident and Cruise’s response to it.”
Though the statement did not provide details as to who exited, Cruise disclosed that “key leaders from Legal, Government Affairs, and Commercial Operations, as well as Safety and Systems” were affected.
Reuters, which first broke the news, reported that the company’s chief operating officer, Gil West, and chief legal officer, Jeff Bleich, were among those who left.
“As a company, we are committed to full transparency and are focused on rebuilding trust and operating with the highest standards when it comes to safety, integrity and accountability, and believe that new leadership is necessary to achieve these goals,” a Cruise spokesperson told The Standard.
In October, a Cruise driverless car hit and dragged a woman nearly 20 feet after she was first struck by a human-operated vehicle.
The incident and the company response ultimately careened the nascent autonomous vehicle firm, owned by automotive titan General Motors, prompting the California Department of Motor Vehicles to revoke its permit to operate in San Francisco, the company to pull its fleet nationwide and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigators to probe the company.
State officials are weighing a roughly $1.5 million fine against the company for allegedly misleading regulators and hiding video of the Oct. 2 accident.
These executive departures follow the exit of Cruise’s co-founders—CEO Kyle Vogt and Chief Product Officer Dan Kan—in November.
General Motors, which owns Cruise and has spent billions on the company, has announced it would curtail spending on Cruise in the neighborhood of “hundreds of millions of dollars."