General Motors (GM) is set to pause production of the Cruise Origin self-driving van following multiple incidents with the subsidiary’s driverless taxis in San Francisco.
After a self-driving Cruise taxi dragged and pinned a woman in the California city last month, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) immediately suspended the company’s license to operate driverless vehicles. This and other incidents with Cruise’s robotaxis have sparked new investigations and caused the company to re-evaluate its self-driving approach, including plans to cease production on the upcoming driverless van.
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt tried to address concerns about the safety of the company’s autonomous vehicles during a company-wide meeting on Monday, from which Forbes obtained audio. During the address, Vogt said that GM will be pausing production of the Origin van, which was expected to ramp up in the coming months.
Vogt told workers, “because a lot of this is in flux, we did make the decision with GM to pause production of the Origin.”
The company was planning to build the Origin van without a steering wheel or pedals, expected to be completely autonomous. Cruise was scheduled to debut the driverless vehicle this year, with some units already having been produced. Vogt also said last year the vehicle would be able to act as a delivery courier when not in use as a robotaxi.
During the meeting, Vogt said that GM had produced hundreds of the Origin van thus far, which he added would be “more than enough for the near-term when we are ready to ramp things back up.”
Vogt also said Cruise is actively cooperating with its regulators and partners during this time, and reports last week showed that the company has hired a third-party legal firm and a technology consultant to aid its internal reviews.
“During this pause we’re going to use our time wisely,” Vogt said.
Just last month, GM CEO Mary Barra said Cruise hoped to have the vehicle on the road in Tokyo as soon as 2026.
“As Cruise continues to push the boundaries of what AV technology can deliver society, safety is always at the forefront,” Barra said during GM’s Q3 earnings call. “And this is something they are continuously improving.”
DMV officials noted that Cruise had “omitted” and “misrepresented” certain details about the October 2 accident with a pedestrian, and Vogt went on to highlight the company’s need to regain the public’s trust during the pause. In addition to facing local scrutiny, Cruise has also garnered additional investigations from federal regulators.
“And so if we want to rebuild trust with these groups, we have got to make sure that we are having those discussions and they hear things from us first and not from the press,” Vogt added during the Monday meeting. “So, candidly because we’ve had some leaks about information coming out of this meeting we have got to be careful what we share from this meeting, or these efforts to rebuild trust could backfire.”
The news of GM’s production pause on the Origin van was later confirmed by GM spokesperson Chaiti Sen, who told Forbes that the automaker would be “finishing production on a small number of pre-commercial vehicles,” before “temporarily” ending production.
“More broadly speaking, we believe autonomous vehicles will transform the way people move around the world, and the Origin is an important part of the AV journey – it’s the first scalable vehicle ever designed specifically for autonomous rides and will make transportation more accessible,” she added in the email.
Cruise is essentially a competitor to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD), which is currently available to users in a beta version. Tesla’s FSD beta, while offering brief periods of hands-free driving on highways, is still meant to be monitored during use at all times, and drivers are expected to be ready to regain control of the car at any point. Additionally, Tesla’s FSD beta system also faces scrutiny from regulators.
Tesla delivering cars with FSD installed, no update required
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Tesla hasn’t adopted Apple CarPlay yet for this shocking reason
Many Apple and iPhone users have wanted the addition, especially to utilize third-party Navigation apps like Waze, which is a popular alternative. Getting apps outside of Tesla’s Navigation to work with its Full Self-Driving suite seems to be a potential issue the company will have to work through as well.
Perhaps one of the most requested features for Tesla vehicles by owners is the addition of Apple CarPlay. It sounds like the company wants to bring the popular UI to its cars, but there are a few bottlenecks preventing it from doing so.
The biggest reason why CarPlay has not made its way to Teslas yet might shock you.
According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Tesla is still working on bringing CarPlay to its vehicles. There are two primary reasons why Tesla has not done it quite yet: App compatibility issues and, most importantly, there are incredibly low adoption rates of iOS 26.
Tesla’s Apple CarPlay ambitions are not dead, they’re still in the works
iOS 26 is Apple’s most recent software version, which was released back in September 2025. It introduced a major redesign to the overall operating system, especially its aesthetic, with the rollout of “Liquid Glass.”
However, despite the many changes and updates, Apple users have not been too keen on the iOS 26 update, and the low adoption rates have been a major sticking point for Tesla as it looks to develop a potential alternative for its in-house UI.
It was first rumored that Tesla was planning to bring CarPlay out in its cars late last year. Many Apple and iPhone users have wanted the addition, especially to utilize third-party Navigation apps like Waze, which is a popular alternative. Getting apps outside of Tesla’s Navigation to work with its Full Self-Driving suite seems to be a potential issue the company will have to work through as well.
According to the report, Tesla asked Apple to make some changes to improve compatibility between its software and Apple Maps:
“Tesla asked Apple to make engineering changes to Maps to improve compatibility. The iPhone maker agreed and implemented the adjustments in a bug fix update to iOS 26 and the latest version of CarPlay.”
Gurman also said that there were some issues with turn-by-turn guidance from Tesla’s maps app, and it did not properly sync up with Apple Maps during FSD operation. This is something that needs to be resolved before it is rolled out.
There is no listed launch date, nor has there been any coding revealed that would indicate Apple CarPlay is close to being launched within Tesla vehicles.
Elon Musk
Starlink restrictions are hitting Russian battlefield comms: report
The restrictions have reportedly disrupted Moscow’s drone coordination and frontline communications.
SpaceX’s decision to disable unauthorized Starlink terminals in Ukraine is now being felt on the battlefield, with Ukrainian commanders reporting that Russian troops have struggled to maintain assault operations without access to the satellite network.
The restrictions have reportedly disrupted Moscow’s drone coordination and frontline communications.
Lt. Denis Yaroslavsky, who commands a special reconnaissance unit, stated that Russian assault activity noticeably declined for several days after the shutdown. “For three to four days after the shutdown, they really reduced the assault operations,” Yaroslavsky said.
Russian units had allegedly obtained Starlink terminals through black market channels and mounted them on drones and weapons systems, despite service terms prohibiting offensive military use. Once those terminals were blocked, commanders on the Ukrainian side reported improved battlefield ratios, as noted in a New York Post report.
A Ukrainian unit commander stated that casualty imbalances widened after the cutoff. “On any given day, depending on your scale of analysis, my sector was already achieving 20:1 (casuality rate) before the shutdown, and we are an elite unit. Regular units have no problem going 5:1 or 8:1. With Starlink down, 13:1 (casualty rate) for a regular unit is easy,” the unit commander said.
The restrictions come as Russia faces heavy challenges across multiple fronts. A late January report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that more than 1.2 million Russian troops have been killed, wounded, or gone missing since February 2022.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War also noted that activity from Russia’s Rubikon drone unit declined after Feb. 1, suggesting communications constraints from Starlink’s restrictions may be limiting operations. “I’m sure the Russians have (alternative options), but it takes time to maximize their implementation and this (would take) at least four to six months,” Yaroslavsky noted.
Elon Musk
Tesla Korea hiring AI Chip Engineers amid push for high-volume AI chips
Tesla Korea stated that it is seeking “talented individuals to join in developing the world’s highest-level mass-produced AI chips.”
In a recent post on X, Tesla Korea announced that it is hiring AI Chip Design Engineers as part of a project aimed at developing what the company describes as the world’s highest-volume AI chips. CEO Elon Musk later amplified the initiative.
Tesla Korea stated that it is seeking “talented individuals to join in developing the world’s highest-level mass-produced AI chips.”
“This project aims to develop AI chip architecture that will achieve the highest production volume in the world in the future,” Tesla Korea wrote in its post on X.
As per Tesla Korea, those who wish to apply for the AI Chip Design Engineer post should email Ai_Chips@Tesla.com and include “the three most challenging technical problems you have solved.”
Elon Musk echoed the hiring push in a separate post. “If you’re in Korea and want to work on chip design, fabrication or AI software, join Tesla!” he wrote.
The recruitment effort in South Korea comes as Tesla accelerates development of its in-house AI chips, which power its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, Optimus humanoid robot, and data center training infrastructure.
Tesla has been steadily expanding its silicon development teams globally. In recent months, the company has posted roles in Austin and Palo Alto for silicon module process engineers across lithography, etching, and other chip fabrication disciplines, as noted in a Benzinga report.
Tesla Korea’s hiring efforts align with the company’s long-term goal of designing and producing AI chips at massive scale. Musk has previously stated that Tesla’s future AI chips could become the highest-volume AI processors in the world.
The move also comes amid Tesla’s broader expansion into AI initiatives. The company recently committed about $2 billion into xAI as part of a Series E funding round, reinforcing its focus on artificial intelligence across vehicles, robotics, and compute infrastructure.
Tesla hasn’t adopted Apple CarPlay yet for this shocking reason
Starlink restrictions are hitting Russian battlefield comms: report
