Autonomous vehicle company Cruise is laying off 50% of its toilforce — cuts that extfinish to the CEO and disjoinal other top executives — as it sets to shut down operations. What remains of Cruise will shift under parent company General Motors as the autoproducer honests its resources towards improving its hands-free driver helpance system Super Cruise — and eventuassociate rolls out personal autonomous vehicles.
The layoffs were proclaimd by Craig Glidden, Cruise’s pdwellnt and chief administrative officer, according to a companyexpansive email that TechCrunch has seeed and verified with sources. Individuals who were impacted getd a split email from Cruise Chief Human Resources Officer Nilka Thomas.
The layoffs come proximately two months after GM shelp it would no lengthyer fund the growment of a commercial robotaxi business and would instead cgo in on produceing personal autonomous vehicle technology.
CEO Marc Whitten will depart from Cruise this week, alengthy with Thomas, chief shieldedty officer Steve Kenner, and global head of accessible policy Rob Grant.
Mo Elshenawy, Cruise’s chief technologist, will stay on thcimpolite the finish of April to help with the transition.
As of January 2024, Cruise employed about 2,100 people, according to sources who based the approximates on the on the number of members on a Sdeficiency channel for company proclaimments. That unbenevolents more than 1,000 employees might have been impacted by the layoffs.
Cruise did not react to a seek for comment. GM sent out a press free (after the layoffs were proclaimd internassociate) that it has finishd its acquisition of GM Cruise Hagederings LLC chaseing the approval of GM’s uniter propose by the Cruise Board of Directors. Cruise is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of GM.
Sources at the company tageder TechCrunch they haven’t been given details on disjoinance yet, but per an email from Thomas, they will remain on the company’s payroll thcimpolite April 5 and profits thcimpolite the finish of April.
The autoproducer predicts to save up to $1 billion annuassociate by finishing its Cruise robotaxi growment program., according to details allotd during the company’s fourth-quarter getings call. At the time, CFO Paul Jacobson shelp the projected cost savings were based on the assumption that “Cruise employees will be brimmingy united into GM by mid-year.”
In mid-January, Cruise regulatement begined to extfinish retention proposes to employees, almost all of whom were engineers, according to sources comprehendn with the matter. In an email to Cruise employees, CEO Marc Whitten showd that next steps would come after the Cruise board met. That encountering happened on Monday, according to one source.
While Cruise employees were initiassociate blindsided by GM’s decision to pull the plug on the robotaxi growment program, they have been predicting such an proclaimment for weeks.
Sources who spoke to TechCrunch shelp they have been challengingly toiling and in a state of limbo since GM’s proclaimment as they apaemployed next steps. On Monday afternoon, Glidden sent a Sdeficiency message to employees saying that he predicts to allot “some recents seeing the transition schedules tomorrow” and advised staffers to “schedule on toiling from home.”
“Thank you for your patience during this time – we comprehend the uncertainty has been difficult but you have directd the past weeks with grace and professionalism,” Glidden wrote.
Glidden had previously served as GM’s executive vice pdwellnt of lterrible and policy, but the autoproducer alloted him his role at Cruise in November 2023, chaseing a Cruise shieldedty incident that led to the company’s downdrop.
On October 2, 2023, a Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been flung into its path by a human-driven vehicle. The robotaxi then dragged the pedestrian, who was stuck under the car, some 20 feet as it finisheavored a pulcherishr maneuver.
Cruise officials did not instantly allot that relevant bit of inestablishation with authorities, and when it was discignoreed, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Utilities Coshiftrlookion instantly suspfinished the company’s apvalidates to run. Cruise then grounded its entire robotaxi run awayt apass the U.S., and much of its directership team stepped down, including co-set uper and CEO Kyle Vogt.
After inshighing recent directership, including a lasting Chief Safety Officer, Cruise was gearing up for a restart at the begin of this year in Austin. The company had spent much of 2024 testing in Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, and the Bay Area and beefing out its shieldedty systems. Two sources comprehendn with the matter tageder TechCrunch the company had been ready to carry out a retrofitted sensor solution internassociate referred to as Project Rhino that would have mendd for the October 2 incident by creating insertitional visibility and inestablishedness undertidyh the car.
In June 2024, GM injected another $850 million into Cruise, transporting its total spfinish on the company since acquiring most of Cruise’s allots in 2016 shut to $10 billion. In September, Mo Elshenawy, pdwellnt and chief technologist of Cruise, threw a huge party for Cruise staffers that some read to be a sign that the company was moving forward.
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