- Cruise announced a round of layoffs Thursday affecting contract workers working on its driverless ride-hailing service, CNBC has learned.
- The cuts affected those who help clean vehicles, charge the fleet and handle customer support requests.
- “Cruise has made the difficult decision to reduce a portion of the temporary workforce supporting driverless ridehail operations,” a company spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.
Kyle Vogt, Chief Executive Office and Chief Technology Officer of Cruise Automation Inc., during the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, USA, on Tuesday, March 14, 2023.
Jordan Vonderhaar | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cruise announced a round of layoffs Thursday affecting contract workers working on its driverless ride-hailing service, CNBC has learned. The cuts affected those who help clean vehicles, charge the fleet and handle customer support requests.
The company declined to provide a specific number.
“Cruise has made the difficult decision to reduce a portion of the temporary workforce supporting driverless ridehail operations,” a company spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. “These temporary workers were responsible for work such as cleaning, charging and fleet maintenance, and we are grateful for their contributions.”
Cruise told CNBC that the layoffs were due to ride operations currently being monitored, adding that the company plans to restart driverless service but did not provide a specific timeline.
The news follows a spate of safety concerns and incidents since Cruise, owned by General Motors, won approval for 24-hour robotaxi service in San Francisco in August. This week, Cruise announced it would recall 950 robotaxis following a pedestrian accident. In October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s deployment and testing permits for its autonomous vehicles on Tuesday, effective immediately.
“If there is a disproportionate risk to public safety, the DMV may immediately suspend or revoke permits,” the California DMV said in a statement.
In GM’s third-quarter earnings update, the company said it lost about $1.9 billion in its cruise business through September of this year.
The DMV suspension came a week after federal motor vehicle safety regulators announced they were investigating Cruise for pedestrian injuries. The investigation, led by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was prompted by multiple reports of pedestrian injuries and cruise vehicles in recent months and involves an estimated 594 self-driving cruise vehicles, according to the filing.