General Motors Co. said Tuesday it will retreat from the robotaxi business and stop funding its money-losing Cruise autonomous vehicle unit.

Instead, the Detroit automaker will focus on development of partially automated driver-assist systems for personal vehicles like its Super Cruise, which allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel.

GM said it would get out of robotaxis “given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.”

The company said it will combine Cruise’s technical team with its own to work on advanced systems to assist drivers.

GM bought control of San Francisco-based Cruise automation in 2016 with high hopes of developing a profitable fleet of robotaxis.

Over the years, GM invested billions in the subsidiary and eventually bought 90% of the company from investors, all while racking up millions in losses.

GM’s brush-off of Cruise represents a dramatic about-face from years of full-blown support that left a huge financial dent in the automaker. The company invested $2.4 billion in Cruise only to sustain years of uninterrupted losses, with little in return. Since GM bought a controlling stake in Cruise for $581 million in 2016, the robotaxi service piled up more than $10 billion in operating losses while bringing in less than $500 million in revenue, according to GM shareholder reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The automaker even announced plans for Cruise to generate $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025, but it scaled back spending on the company after one of its autonomous Chevrolet Bolts dragged a San Francisco pedestrian who was hit by another vehicle in 2023.

The California Public Utilities Commission alleged Cruise then covered up details of the crash for more than two weeks.

The embarrassing event resulted in Cruise’s license to operate its driverless fleet in California being suspended by regulators and triggered a purge of its leadership — in addition to layoffs that jettisoned about a quarter of its workforce.

GM CEO Mary Barra told analysts on a conference call Tuesday the new unit will focus on personal vehicles and developing systems that can drive by themselves in certain circumstances.

The company has agreements to buy another 7% of Cruise and intends to buy the remaining shares so it owns the whole company.

The move is another step back from autonomous vehicles, which have proved far harder to develop than companies once anticipated. Two years ago, crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. disbanded its Argo AI autonomous vehicle venture in Pittsburgh that it co-owned with Volkswagen.