General Motors' robotaxi unit Cruise is planning a slow return to service starting in one city - potentially Texas or Arizona, Axios reported on Wednesday.

It is also narrowing its engineering focus to its existing robotaxi and will lay off an unspecified number of non-engineers in multiple cities, the report said.

In October, one of Cruise's driverless cabs was not able to stop in time from hitting a pedestrian who had been struck by a hit-and-run driver, raising safety concerns around the use of robotaxis.

(Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)