Cruise -

Internal Ops Origin Readiness

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To comply with NDA, certain parts of the project were edited or removed.

Context

Cruise is a motor vehicle manufacturing company that designs and builds world leading autonomous vehicles. The company has been testing specially built self-driving EVs in various cities in the U.S.

In 2020, Cruise unveiled their development of Origin, a minivan-looking electric bus. As Cruise increased production of their new development in 2023, they aimed to gradually replace the Bolt with Origin.

My project focused on understanding internal tooling teams’ readiness for the transition to Origin.

Problem Statement

  • As business decisions regarding the transitions evolve, we knew very little about how ready internal tooling teams are with the upcoming changes.

Research Questions

  • Q1: How do new features of the Origin affect the processes & needs in internal tooling?

    • Literature review & field studies

  • Q2: Who may be affected by these new features of Origin?

    • Semi-structured interviews with internal tooling operators

  • Q3: How ready are internal tooling teams with the transition to Origin?

    • Semi-structured interviews with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

Research Process

    • Problem Framing

      • Worked collaboratively to understand the problem and why it is important

    • Literature Review

      • Reviewed existing research regarding Bolt and Origin

    • Research Plan

      • Field research guide and interview script

    • Recruitment

      • Determined target participants and availability

    • Logistics

      • Arranged field visits at both Bolt and Origin launching/production facilities, scheduled interviews

    • Field studies with operators across teams

      • Observed and interviewed current operations’ workflows

      • Noted potential differences between Bolt and Origin

    • Semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs) across teams

      • Understood the incompatibilities between their current processes with anticipated future processes given existing knowledge

      • Measured the severity of these incompatibilities

    • Findings Synthesis

      • Identified known findings and new knowledge

      • Transformed findings into meaningful and actionable insights

      • Quantified risks for insights

    • Recommendations

      • Generated “how might we” questions to inspire future research

Selected Key Findings

Q1: How do the new features of the Origin may affect the processes & needs in internal tooling?

  • Finding 1:

    • Lack of steering wheel creates costly and inefficient risks for in-garage navigation

Current Process 

  • Origin’s in garage navigation relies on an external vehicle controller (XVC) as there is no driver’s seat, which

    • Requires two ops to operate

      • One operator

      • One looker due to limited camera view

    • E.g., moving an Origin from egress spot to parking spot (~50ft) requires 2 ops to manually plug in XVC and operate

Risks

  • XVC is costly, risky, and inefficient for in garage navigation

    • XVC is expensive

    • Limited camera views on XVC increases risk for accidents and potentially poor navigation

  • Requiring two ops to use XVC is inefficient

“I can’t see very well because XVC’s screen is small and the windows on Origin are pretty small too”

How might we…

  • Develop more efficient, cost-effective, and safer tools for in garage navigation?

Risks

  • More capacity will likely make communication with passengers more chaotic

    • Potentially decreasing communication quality

“I had three passengers, and and all I can hear is the other two singing to radio, it’s hard to hear the primary account holder”

“Someone jumped into a call, and all I could hear is their friends screaming”

How might we…

  • Ensure high quality communications between CSS and passengers by reducing distraction?

  • Finding 2:

    • Having more passengers creates potential complications for customer service

Current Process 

  • Origin will have increased capacity and can seat up to 6 passengers

  • It is likely that customer service will speak with 6 passengers at once during communications

Q2: Who may be affected by these new features of Origin?

  • Finding 1:

    • AV Operators

      • Not having a steering wheel/driver’s seat creates significant challenges and risks

  • Finding 2

    • Onsite Assistance

      • Not having a steering wheel/driver’s seat means that Origins will rely on towing if failed in field, which may cause increased efforts into monitoring towing status

  • Finding 3

    • Customer support

      • Greater capacity in the Origin opens possibilities for more chaotic and complicated communications between customer support and other parties

Q3: How ready are internal tooling teams with the transition to Origin?

  • Finding:

    • Operators are not familiar with Origin and uncertain about how to prepare for transitioning to Origin

      • 10 out of 11 ops across teams mentioned that they “don’t really know about the features

  • “All I know is that there is no steering wheel, but I don’t know how much that will affect our workflows”

  • “They haven’t really told us anything about the Origin and I don’t know what will change”

  • “I don’t really know about the features on the Origin”

  • Risk

    • Operations’ increased confusion and uncertainty

    • Lack of information and preparation

  • How might we…

    • Ensure that teams are informed about Origin and timeline? 

    • Help internal tooling/operations adequately prepare for Origin as we transition?

The Impact

This Research

  • Uncovered critical roadblocks for achieving company’s business goals

  • Identified areas for improvement to minimize risks and costs, as well as to improve efficiency and reliability

Personal reflections

I learned to

  • work with stakeholders to define research scope

  • speak stakeholder languages with different teams

  • think strategically about navigating research to align with business decisions