And while Ammann continued to push the company to expand, there were missed targets, notably the plan to launch a commercial robotaxi business in 2019. The company has spent the past two years inching toward that commercialization goal, along with the rest of the industry, which has gone through a spate of consolidation.
Most likely that's a lot harder to get done than anyone thinks. Is Vogt really the guy to make it happen? I guess we'll find out. But GM sending an otherwise successful VP packing after more than a decade there signals they are looking to shake things up. GM is not Silicon Valley and even senior execs IMHO enjoy longer tenures that you'd find in the Valley. They also skipped over the whole reassigning him to another role / oh he's left to pursue other interests tap dancing you often see to give people some runway or cover to leave. Not sure whether to read anything into that or if that's just how Barra operates.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/16/longtime-gm-exec-dan-amman...
Ammann inherited Vogt's mess, and at that time nobody in management fully understood how bad the situation was. Ammann promptly began fixing things and we see the fruits of that today.
Ammann's departure, to the best of our knowledge, is a result of a conflict with GM's CEO regarding the future of Cruise as a business.
Hopefully Vogt can preserve, and successfully build on, what Ammann accomplished.
Is MS the bare minimum required?
Ironically I ended up canceling in large part because of the CEO spat.. it gave me some uncertainty about if they were committed to L5. Especially vs serving as GM's L3 supplier while paying L5 lip service indefinitely (and never going public)
Dan Ammann took over and made really substantial progress. Ammann is widely considered to be the reason Cruise is where it is today. His record of success was in sharp contrast to Vogt's consistent record of failure.
Unfortunately, Ammann disagreed with GM's CEO about Cruise's future as a business. Employees at my level of seniority don't know the details, but many of us are skeptical that Kyle is the right man for the job.