Cruise, GM's autonomous driving subsidiary, appoints Marc Whitten as CEO

After a year of safety concerns, layoffs and mass executive departures, G.M. is trying to find stability for its futuristic driverless car business.

Cruise, the driverless car subsidiary of General Motors, said Tuesday that a video game industry veteran would become its new CEO, eight months after his previous CEO. resigned following a series of safety issues with its vehicles.

The appointment of Marc Whitten, who was most recently an executive at video game technology company Unity, follows a tumultuous year for Cruise, which was ordered by California regulators in October to take its fleet of vehicles off the road after a series of traffic incidents. The worst incident occurred on October 2, when a pedestrian was dragged under a Cruise car on a San Francisco street.

Cruise has since fired a quarter of its workforce. and expelled nine executives.

Mr. Whitten, who takes office on July 16, was also a founding engineer at Xbox and chief executive of Amazon. He will join Mo Elshenawy, Cruise's president and chief technology officer, and Craig Glidden, Cruise's president and chief administrative officer, who were appointed by Cruise's board of directors in November to lead the company following Kyle's resignation Vogt, the former CEO of Cruise.

ImageMarc Whitten was most recently an executive at the company of video game technology Unity.Credit...Chelsea Lauren/ Variety/Penske Media, via Getty Images

“This is a unique opportunity to be part of this transformation “, Mr. Whitten said in a statement. “The Cruise team has built world-class technology and I look forward to working with them to help bring this critical mission to life.”

Since the Mr. Vogt's resignation, Cruise has been slow to restart operations, a far cry from its rapid expansion into 15 cities across 10 states a year ago. In May, Cruise executives told the New York Times that they were in no rush to get back on the road and that safety was Cruise's "north star."

G.M. acquired Cruise for $1.6 billion in 2016.

Cruise also hired Nick Mulholland, who worked for electric car maker Rivian, as its new director of communications and marketing. Mr. Elshenawy and Mr. Glidden will remain with the company and report to Mr. Whitten, the company said in a statement.

In a separate statement, G.M. named Grant Dixton, also from the video game industry, as its new executive vice president and director of legal affairs and public policy. Mr. Dixton previously worked for Activision Blizzard in a senior management role.