GM's Cruise robotaxi unit hires veteran Ford and Apple official to be its safety chief after crash

Cruise, the troubled General Motors autonomous vehicle unit, has hired a veteran automotive and technology company safety official for the critical position of chief safety officer. Steve Kenner started the job on Monday, Cruise said in a statement. Most recently he was vice president of safety at Kodiak, a self-driving truck company. He also has held leadership positions at Ford, Apple, Uber and Aurora, another company that makes hardware and software for autonomous trucks. He comes to Cruise at a pivotal time, four months after a Cruise robotaxi dragged a San Francisco pedestrian roughly 20 feet to the curb after the pedestrian was hit by a human-driven vehicle. Regulators accused Cruise of covering up key details of the incident.