Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Cruise begins layoffs, starting with workers who supported driverless operations

gm cruise layoffs

The cuts are part of a broader restructuring to focus the robotaxi unit on a narrower path to commercialization. Instead of expanding its commercial robotaxi service to multiple US cities, the company will relaunch its currently paused service in just one. Cruise issued Wednesday a recall for 950 vehicles equipped with its autonomous vehicle software following the October 2 crash that left a pedestrian, who had initially been hit by a human-driven car, stuck under and then dragged by one of the company’s robotaxis.

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Craig Glidden, the automaker’s executive vice president of legal and policy and a Cruise board member, will serve as a president and continue as chief administrative officer. Jon McNeill, who joined the Cruise board last month, has been appointed vice chairman of the board, serving alongside GM CEO Mary Barra. Days later Cruise paused all of its driverless operations in other markets where it had more limited service, including Austin, Houston and Phoenix. The embattled self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors faces an uncertain future after California regulators shut down its robot taxi service in the state.

gm cruise layoffs

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After the incident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s permit to operate driverless cars in the state. (It had vehicles in Arizona, Texas, and Florida as well.) In response to the pause in operations, GM said it would reduce spending on Cruise and appoint its own executives to oversee the company. The company laid off Thursday contingent workers, people who were employed to support its driverless fleet. These included jobs cleaning, charging and maintaining the vehicles as well as answering customer support inquiries, according to spokesperson Tiffany Testo.

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The company has also ended additional assignments of contingent workers who supported its driverless operations. Engineering, a category that makes up the bulk of the Cruise workforce, is largely being preserved, according to the content of the email and discussions with internal sources. Cruise wants to “enhance our safety standards and processes before we scale,” company co-president and CTO Mo ElShenawy wrote in a letter to employees announcing the layoffs today. A company blog post said that 24 percent of full-time Cruise employees will be let go, with a focus on field and commercial operations, and corporate staffing, though some engineers are also affected. The company had already cut last month a portion of its contingent workforce who kept self-driving vehicles clean, charged, and maintained.

"This is one of the hardest days we’ve had so far because so many talented people are leaving," Elshenawy wrote. "On behalf of the (senior leadership team), the Cruise Board and GM, I’m truly grateful to everyone who has played a role in building Cruise and who has poured so much into the promise of making our roads safer and our world better." Weeks following the October mishap, California’s department of motor vehicles in effect shut down the robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.

I am so sorry we have to do this by email, as I would prefer that we have a conversation with each of you. Unfortunately, given the scale of this change, this approach allows us to communicate to those who are impacted at the same time. We know you will want to say goodbye to your colleagues, so you will have access to Cruise email and Zoom for the next couple of hours (until 10am PT). A Cruise representative also told CNBC that the company's goal is now to work on a fully driverless L4 service, as well as relaunching ride-hailing in one city to start. This latest development comes after Cruise confirmed Wednesday that nine senior leaders "departed Cruise" as a result of the ongoing safety investigation and its aftermath. In a statement, Cruise said the employees being let go worked mostly in commercial operations and related corporate functions.

Robotaxi

GM's Cruise Unit Is Laying Off 24% of Its Workers - WSJ - The Wall Street Journal

GM's Cruise Unit Is Laying Off 24% of Its Workers - WSJ.

Posted: Thu, 14 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Those who were laid off will remain on payroll through February 12th and are eligible for an additional eight weeks of pay. Long-term employees are being offered an additional two weeks’ pay per every year at Cruise over three years. Everyone will receive an end-of-the-year bonus, as well as extended medical and dental coverage, immigration support, and other benefits. Most of the job cuts are in corporate and commercial roles, which have become less important since the company voluntarily suspended all its driverless operations across the country in October. The shut down came two days after California’s Department of Motor Vehicles said that the company “misrepresented” its technology and ordered Cruise to stop operating in the state. Prior to the crash, the company also operated robotaxi services in Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona, and had plans to launch in Houston, Dallas, and Miami, among other cities.

Cruise CEO Confirms Coming Layoffs Amid Scramble To Rebuild Public Trust - Forbes

Cruise CEO Confirms Coming Layoffs Amid Scramble To Rebuild Public Trust.

Posted: Wed, 08 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Cruise lays off nearly a quarter of its staff after grounding its robotaxi fleet

Affected employees were primarily in the company’s commercial operations division, as well as related corporate functions, a spokesperson said. Waymo, a division of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is still offering a driverless taxi service in San Francisco. The industry’s leaders consider the city to be a critical proving ground for the technology’s potential and the viability of the $8 trillion market that it could create. But many driverless car executives now worry that Cruise’s troubles could lead regulators to increase their enforcement and scrutiny of the nascent technology. And financial pressures have been mounting for start-ups that sell sensors and other technology to self-driving car companies.

McNeill, who joined the Cruise board recently and was previously chief operating officer at Lyft and president of Tesla, now serves alongside GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra. Cruise stopped its driverless taxi operations across all its fleets right after that "to rebuild public trust" after losing the ability to operate in California. In November, the GM-owned Cruise recalled all of its 950 self-driving systems after one vehicle dragged a pedestrian struck by another car.

On Wednesday, Cruise fired nine executives, including its chief operating officer and chief legal and policy officer amid an external investigation led by law firm Quinn Emmanuel into the accident and Cruise’s response. Cruise’s board of directors held a regularly-scheduled meeting at the company’s San Francisco headquarters this past Monday. Following that meeting, the company put out a series of announcements indicating that it would “further steps to enhance safety and transparency,” including hiring a new executive and expanding its outside investigation into the circumstances of its fateful October 2 incident.

gm cruise layoffs

Laid-off workers will stay on payroll until Feb. 12 and are eligible for an additional 8 weeks of pay, with long-time workers being offered an additional 2 weeks' pay for every year at Cruise over three years. The materials note results from simulated tests in which a Cruise vehicle is in the vicinity of a small child. “Based on the simulation results, we can’t rule out that a fully autonomous vehicle might have struck the child,” reads one assessment. In another test drive, a Cruise vehicle successfully detected a toddler-sized dummy but still struck it with its side mirror at 28 miles per hour. Cruise’s decision to suspend all trips on public roads last month came after a board meeting at the company’s headquarters. As per a Cruise representative the company’s goal is now to work on a fully driverless L4 service, as well as relaunching ride-hailing in one city to start.

The Cruise car dragged the woman some 20 feet before pulling to the curb, causing severe injuries. Regulators accused Cruise of omitting footage of its car dragging the woman from a video that it provided to state officials. Barra reiterated plans for Cruise to be more “deliberate” when operations eventually resume at the troubled self-driving vehicle subsidiary.

"As a result of our decision to slow down commercialization, we are restructuring to focus on delivering the improvements to our tech and vehicle performance that will build trust in our AVs," the Cruise post said. GM’s driverless car subsidiary has announced a round of layoffs this week, with the CEO Kyle Vogt reportedly telling employees in an all-hands meeting. Plus, investigations have dredged up some incriminating news that the software’s algorithm had trouble detecting children. Elshenawy said in the memo — also in a blog on — that Cruise also ended additional assignments of contingent workers who support driverless operations. General Motors’ troubled Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is cutting over 900 jobs, about a quarter of its workforce, as it moves to reduce costs and remake itself after a grisly accident in San Francisco and subsequent regulatory scrutiny. Early last month, the company recalled all its robotaxis, which it had been testing on roads in California, and regulators accused Cruise of hiding the severity of the incident.

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