General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra, clad in her signature leather jacket and masked up pandemic style, climbed into a Cruise robotaxi named Tostada for her first autonomous ride almost three years ago.

Evidently, however, in her 10th year on the job, GM CEO Mary Barra is still up for a good challenge. ( Welcome to The Breakthrough Awards, InsideEVs' year-end awards program recognizing the EVs, people and technologies that are paving the way for our clean energy transition. Read about the awards and the other contenders below.)

If Waymo and Tesla are able to stand up profitable robotaxi businesses, GM could end up looking back on Cruise as a missed opportunity the same way it now views the EV1 electric car. The Detroit automaker pulled the plug on that revolutionary attempt at a commercially viable electric vehicle in 2003 — the same year Tesla was founded.