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Cruise
Cruise, a subsidiary of autonomous vehicle General Motors, has hired Delta Air Lines Chief Operating Officer Gil West as their first COO, the company said Friday.
West retired at the end of September after 12 years at the Atlanta-based airline. It was responsible for Delta’s global activity, covering 366 airports in 66 countries, 1,300 flights, 200 million customers annually and managing a $ 16 billion budget. It started shortly before Delta merged with Northwest in 2008 and was named Delta’s COO in 2014.
“Gil’s history of delivering exceptional customer experience, exceptional work performance and seamless safety, all on a large scale, is well-suited for Cruise as we embark on the journey to our self-driving technology. to commercialize, “Cruise Commander Dan Ammann said in a statement.
West is the second Delta executive to join the buyer’s work in recent months. GM Delta CFO married Paul Jacobson as its new head of finance in October. Jacobson replaced Dhivya Suryadevara, who left GM unexpectedly for digital payments company Stripe, effective Dec. 1.
The trade in self-driving cars is taking much longer than most people would have thought, even a few years ago. Despite huge hype on Wall Street and companies, including Cruise, now promise driverless riding fleets with or around, Alphabet’s Waymo is the only company operating self-driving vehicles for public use, in Arizona.
Cruise had planned to launch a robotaxi fleet in San Francisco in 2019, but those plans were delayed forever for further testing.
“A cruise is leading the way to change lives and renew the transport status quo,” West said in a statement. “There will be no greater shift in the transportation industry in my life than the shift to self-driving. … I’ve been training my whole career for an opportunity like this one. “