Layoffs hit GM’s Cruise self-driving car division
Standard Motors’ self-driving car device Cruise on Thursday announced it was laying off about eight p.c of its employees, according to an inside e-mail.
That makes it the newest autonomous car technology firm to reduce employees as the coronavirus pandemic has shut down the economic climate and dried up funding. Even just before the pandemic, the autonomous driving industry faced issues, with the guarantee of substantial-scale rollouts of so-named robotaxis pushed out by several yrs.
“In this time of terrific alter, we’re fortunate to have a crystal very clear mission and billions in the bank. The actions we took now replicate us doubling down on our engineering operate and engineering talent,” Cruise spokesperson Milin Mehta informed Reuters.
In advance of the layoffs, Cruise experienced 1,800 whole-time employees.
According to the inside e-mail to employees by Cruise Main Govt Dan Ammann on Thursday, the layoff includes employees at an engineering crew in Padasedna, California, that functions on lidar, a sensor technology that utilizes pulsed laser light to feeling objects, similar to the way radar utilizes radio waves. Lidar startups experienced mushroomed when self-driving car tech drew billions of pounds and buzz.
Starsky Robotics, a five-year-aged San Francisco startup focused on automating long-haul freight shipping and delivery, shut its doors in mid-March thanks to lack of funding. And according to numerous studies, Zoox, a self-driving tech firm primarily based in Silicon Valley, also laid off employees all through the pandemic.