GM-owned Cruise's bumpy road to driverless ambitions

(Reuters) - General Motors' self-driving cab service Cruise has come under heat from regulatory bodies over the past few months after one of its driverless cabs was not able to stop in time from hitting a pedestrian.

Here is a rundown on key events that led to its downfall:

Date Development

March 11, Cruise applies for permits needed to start

2021 charging for rides and delivery using autonomous

vehicles in San Francisco

Sep 30, Cruise receives autonomous vehicle permits to

2021 offer rides to passengers in California

Dec 16, Dan Ammann, CEO of Cruise, leaves the company

2021

Feb 28, California Public Utilities Commission issues

2022 permits to Cruise's self-driving units to allow

for passenger service in autonomous vehicles with

safety drivers present

Jul 26, GM reports losing nearly $5 billion trying to

2022 build a robotaxi business with Cruise since 2018

Aug 3, GM announces that owners of certain vehicles

2022 equipped with its Super Cruise assisted driving

system will now be able to use it on 400,000

miles of North American roads

Sep 1, Cruise recalls and updates software in 80

2022 self-driving vehicles after a June crash in San

Francisco left two people injured

Sep 12, Cruise plans to expand its driverless ride

2022 service to include Phoenix, Arizona and Austin,

Texas

Dec 16, U.S. auto safety regulators open a formal safety

2022 probe into the autonomous driving system in

vehicles produced by Cruise

March 16, GM CEO Mary Barra meets two key senators as the

2023 Detroit automaker pushes for legislation to speed

deployment of self-driving vehicles on U.S. roads

July 12, U.S. regulators to decide on GM request to deploy

2023 up to 2,500 Cruise vehicles annually

Aug 9, A top GM executive says Cruise has "largely

2023 solved all the technology challenges"

Oct 17, U.S. auto safety regulators open a probe into

2023 whether Cruise is taking sufficient precautions

with its autonomous robotaxis to safeguard

pedestrians

Oct 24, California orders Cruise to remove its driverless

2023 cars from state roads, calling the vehicles a

risk to the public and saying the company

"misrepresented" the safety of the technology

Oct 26, Cruise says it will suspend all operations

2023 nationwide

Nov 3, Board of GM's Cruise reviews regulatory response,

2023 technology

Nov 6, GM says it plans to temporarily halt production

2023 of its fully autonomous Cruise Origin van

Nov 8, Cruise recalls 950 driverless cars from the roads

2023 across the U.S following crash involving one of

its robotaxis and says it will likely issue more

recalls

Nov 14, Cruise says it will pause all supervised and

2023 manual car trips in the U.S. and expand the scope

of its investigations

Nov 16, Cruise suspends program under which GM buys back

2023 employees' shares

Nov 19, Kyle Vogt resigns as CEO

2023

Nov 20, Co-founder and chief product officer Daniel Kan

2023 resigns

Nov 22, Cruise says it is planning to re-launch in one

2023 unspecified city before expanding to others

Dec 4, A California agency says Cruise could face $1.5

2023 million in fines and sanctions over failure to

disclose details of an accident in the year

Dec 13, Cruise dismisses nine key people amid ongoing

2023 safety investigation

Dec 14, Cruise says it will slash 24% of its workforce as

2023 it works to restructure operations

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)