Autonomous trucking company Kodiak Robotics has appointed Mohamed “Mo” Elshenawy, former president and chief technology officer of General Motors’ robotaxi unit Cruise, to its board of directors, the company announced in a July 23 press release.
The move “bolsters technology and self-driving leadership as Kodiak prepares to become a publicly listed company,” the release said.
Elshenawy “guided Cruise through critical phases of technology and operational development and helped manage Cruise's integration into a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors," Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak, said in a statement. “His expertise in technology platform transformation, expanding world-class engineering organizations and deploying AI into real-world operations will be invaluable as we scale our product deployment.”
Currently, Elshenawy is chief technology officer at telehealth company Hims & Hers Health and sits on the software advisory board at Mercedes-Benz. He joined Cruise in January 2018 as its VP of engineering, according to the executive’s LinkedIn profile. He led the robotaxi company during some of its most tumultuous years, becoming president and CTO in November 2023, one month after a Cruise vehicle struck and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco, leading to the suspension of the robotaxi service in multiple cities.
GM acquired Cruise in 2016 and invested more than $10 billion in the business before shutting down its commercial robotaxi operations in December 2024, citing the “significant amount of incremental time and capital” necessary to run the robotaxi arm, as GM CEO Mary Barra said at the time. The Cruise unit was subsequently folded into GM’s broader driver-assistance technology work.
Elshenawy remained at Cruise until May, according to his LinkedIn profile.
