Cruise robotaxis in crisis: layoffs, algorithm had blind spot for kids

Table Of Content

• GM's Cruise laying off 900 employees, or 24% of its workforce: Read the memo here
• Crisis At Cruise: Robotaxi CEO Confirms Coming Layoffs Amid Scramble To Rebuild Public Trust
• Cruise begins layoffs, starting with workers who supported driverless operations
• General Motors Layoffs 2023: What to Know About the Latest Cruise Job Cuts
• Massive Layoffs Hit Troubled Robotaxi Developer Cruise
• Cruise lays off nearly a quarter of its staff after grounding its robotaxi fleet

In an interview in Washington, DC, yesterday, Barra said that fully driverless cars will scale faster than a lot of people think. It’s been a tumultuous seven years since GM first announced its plan to acquire Cruise with the goal of rapidly commercializing the technology. The company has scored some significant victories in recent months, including a vote in California to allow it to operate its driverless robotaxi service 24/7 — only to see most of that progress evaporate after a series of errors have exposed major problems with Cruise’s management. Those who were laid off will remain on payroll through February 12th and are eligible for an additional eight weeks of pay.

GM's Cruise laying off 900 employees, or 24% of its workforce: Read the memo here

Cruise is targeting non-engineering jobs in the layoffs, particularly those people who worked in the field, commercial operations and corporate staffing, according to the email. 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.

Crisis At Cruise: Robotaxi CEO Confirms Coming Layoffs Amid Scramble To Rebuild Public Trust

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. Following the resignation of Vogt, Mo Elshenawy, the company’s VP for engineering, was promoted to president and chief technology officer. Cruise, the self-driving unit of General Motors, will lay off nearly a quarter of its employees, or 900 workers, after grounding its fleet in response to an incident in which a hit-and-run victim became pinned under a Cruise vehicle and then was dragged 20 feet to the side of the road. The autonomous vehicle company confirmed to Insider that some of its contract workers who were involved in the company's robotaxi operations had been laid off, but declined to provide a specific number or locations impacted.

Cruise begins layoffs, starting with workers who supported driverless operations

We are ceasing work on the Origin MY24 but not losing sight of our work on future programs. This is very different from our prior plans to expand into more than a dozen new cities in 2024. Cruise told CNBC that the layoffs are reflective of its current supervised driving operations, adding that the company plans to resume driverless service but that it does not have a specific timeline to share. Cruise announced a round of layoffs Thursday affecting contract workers who worked on its driverless ridehailing service, CNBC has learned. The cuts included those who help with cleaning vehicles, fleet charging and fielding customer support inquiries. The once hard-charging autonomous vehicle company Cruise is facing an existential crisis, and is now scrambling to appease investors, regulators and the public — just weeks after the California DMV revoked its license to operate — according to audio of a Monday all-hands meeting obtained by Forbes.

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And financial pressures have been mounting for start-ups that sell sensors and other technology to self-driving car companies. Further, a majority of collisions involving Waymo represented low-speed affairs initially stemming from other (human) drivers. As well, during incidents where a Waymo driverless car hit another vehicle, the counterparties were not blameless, leaving little ability for the Waymo car to avoid the collision. Contributing to the woes that eventually sparked the General Motors layoffs, Bloomberg reported in late October that Cruise grounded its entire fleet.

These included jobs cleaning, charging and maintaining the vehicles as well as answering customer support inquiries, according to spokesperson Tiffany Testo. Vendors will make their own determination about severance for those workers, according to Testo. General Motors voluntarily recalled Cruise’s entire fleet of 950 robotaxis, and yesterday, Cruise published a blog post in response to the recent events. Interestingly, the post said that the company is looking to hire a chief safety officer and is bringing on law firm Quinn Emmanuel, which has worked with Elon Musk, to review its response to the October pedestrian incident in San Francisco. Since purchasing Cruise in 2016 for $1 billion, General Motors has been hemorrhaging money. From January to September, GM lost $1.9 billion on Cruise expenses between January and September this year, in addition to a $732 million loss in the third quarter.

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This week, Cruise leadership tried to rally their employees and regroup after numerous obstacles and setbacks in recent weeks. The company also said that all employees, regardless of whether they were laid off, will receive their January 15th vesting through its employee share-selling program. Cruise did not respond to Insider's request for comment on the potential layoffs of full time employees. A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare.

GM self-driving arm Cruise is laying off 24% of its workforce - CNN

GM self-driving arm Cruise is laying off 24% of its workforce.

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

The probe, spearheaded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was prompted by multiple reports involving pedestrian injuries and Cruise vehicles in recent months, and it concerns an estimated 594 self-driving Cruise vehicles, according to the filing. Barra reiterated plans for Cruise to be more “deliberate” when operations eventually resume at the troubled self-driving vehicle subsidiary. For GM, that includes slashing spending at Cruise “by hundreds of millions of dollars” in 2024, an action that most expected would result in widespread layoffs. But many driverless car executives now worry that Cruise’s troubles could lead regulators to increase their enforcement and scrutiny of the nascent technology.

GM’s Cruise Cuts About 25 Percent of Its Workers - The New York Times

GM’s Cruise Cuts About 25 Percent of Its Workers.

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

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). Our message to other employers in the market is that each departing Cruiser is a talented, driven, and mission-focused team member who will contribute and achieve great things elsewhere. Other companies will be privileged to have these professionals on their teams, as we were privileged to have them here during their time at Cruise.

That has been pared back to relaunching its robotaxis in a single, yet-to-be-determined market. Also among the cuts, according to Bloomberg, was Prashanthi Raman, Cruise’s vice president of government affairs. Raman was featured in a promotional video last year where she rode around San Francisco in a Cruise robotaxi alongside former Mayor Willie Brown. General Motors, which announced it would be cutting spending on the self-driving car company by “hundreds of millions of dollars,” has been in the process of clearing out much of Cruise’s leadership. These positions spanned departments including software development, marketing, recruiting, accounting and operations. As part of their total compensation, Cruise employees would receive some cash salary and also would receive another portion as company stock.

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. Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving development subsidiary, will lay off almost a quarter of its workforce—about 900 employees—the company announced Thursday.

But it was a crash with an emergency response vehicle that began to chip away at the company’s seemingly impenetrable exterior. The layoffs follow a series of missteps in recent months that culminated in the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspending the company’s driverless vehicle permit. The California Public Utilities Commission pulled Cruise’s permit, which allowed it to charge for robotaxi rides, soon after. The agencies suspended Cruise’s permits after an October 2 incident, in which a pedestrian who was struck by a human driver and then landed in the adjacent lane, was then run over by a  Cruise robotaxi.