DETROIT, Feb 4 (Reuters) - General Motors ( GM ) said on

Tuesday it had completed the full acquisition of its Cruise

business to focus on developing the autonomous technology for

personal vehicles not robotaxis.

The Detroit automaker said it plans to integrate the Cruise

technology into its Super Cruise system, which allows drivers to

operate the vehicle hands-off on 750,000 miles of roads in North

America and is available on more than 20 GM vehicle models.

GM said in December it would halt funding of the Cruise

robotaxi business. This followed a year of trying to overcome

challenges that arose after one of its robotaxis struck and

seriously injured a pedestrian who had been hit by another

vehicle.

The merger will result in the reduction of 50% of Cruise's

staff, said a Cruise spokesperson, who declined to specify the

total number of employees affected.

"We are focused on combining efforts with General Motors ( GM ) to

accelerate autonomy at scale on personal autonomous vehicles,"

the spokesperson said in a statement.

The GM and Cruise teams will work on expanding Super Cruise

to streets in urban environments, the company said.

Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and

services engineering, said that the move will "accelerate our

work on both assisted-driving and autonomous driving."