General Motors' Cruise Delays Debut of Its Driverless Taxis on Safety Concerns
General Motors
General Motors (GM) - Get Report , Cruise's majority owner, said Wednesday it will not deploy its driverless robotaxis this year, a deadline it set a year-and-a-half ago.
"When you're working on the large-scale deployment of mission-critical safety systems, the mindset of 'move fast and break things' certainly doesn't cut it," Cruise CEO Dan Ammann posted in a blog.
The sentiment supports GM CEO Mary Barra, who said GM would not release an automated vehicle until it is proved safer than one with a human driver.
Ironically, the postponement came on the day Tesla (TSLA) - Get Report reports second-quarter financial results. Elon Musk's company has vowed to release one million "full self-driving" cars by 2020.
A public deployment isn't far off, Ammann added, in a Bloomberg interview. The company continues to test-drive in urban areas and build out its electric-car charging infrastructure in the interim.
The 21-analyst consensus, according to FactSet, calls for an overweight rating and $47.22 target price on GM.
The stock was little changed at $40.78 in early trading Wednesday. The shares have a 3.8% dividend yield.