GM's Cruise names new CEO as it works to relaunch robotaxi service

General Motors Co.'s Cruise LLC autonomous driving unit has hired Marc Whitten, a former Amazon executive and founding engineer at Xbox, as the next CEO as it tries to get back on track after halting services last year amid scrutiny over its safety practices.

Whitten will take over as Cruise's top executive effective July 16, Cruise said Tuesday. Kyle Vogt, former Cruise CEO and founder, left the company in November after Cruise suspended operations in October. The serve halt was triggered when one of Cruise's Chevrolet Bolt autonomous electric vehicles dragged a San Francisco pedestrian who was first struck by a human-driven vehicle and thrown into the AV's path.

Whitten will be joining Cruise as it pushes to relaunch service in Houston and other cities.

“Marc is a proven technology and business leader with extensive experience in scaling products and building ecosystems around them,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “He has sparked innovation and driven growth in complex, fast-paced environments throughout his career, and I believe that will prove crucial to Cruise’s vision of creating technology that provides real, tangible benefits to society.”

At Amazon, Whitten was general manager and vice president across a range of entertainment devices and services, including Fire TV, Kindle and Amazon apps and entertainment services, according to Cruise. He was most recently chief product and technology officer for Create at Unity, which is a part of Unity Technologies, a leading software platform for game building.

Mo Elshenawy will continue to serve as president and chief technology officer at Cruise and Craig Glidden will be president and chief administrative officer. Both will report to Whitten, as will Steve Kenner, Cruise’s chief safety officer hired in February.

Cruise also announced it hired Nick Mulholland as its chief communications and marketing officer. Most recently, Mulholland led electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive Inc.’s global communications team.

Separately, GM said Tuesday it hired Grant Dixton as executive vice president and chief legal and public policy officer beginning July 15. Dixton, who has decades of experience in the technology and manufacturing industries, has had senior leadership roles at Activision Blizzard, a video game holding company, and Boeing, according to GM.

In this role, Dixton will report to Barra and oversee the company’s global legal, compliance, corporate governance, privacy and public policy functions, GM said.

Dixton is taking the position held by Glidden, who will focus his time on Cruise. Glidden will also serve as executive vice president and strategic adviser at GM. Glidden joined GM in 2015 as general counsel.