Cruise employees ‘blindsided’ by GM’s plan to end robotaxi program

The information got here by Slack message. 

Cruise CEO Marc Whitten, who took the highest publish in June, posted a message Tuesday afternoon within the firm’s bulletins channel together with a hyperlink to a press release entitled “GM to refocus autonomous driving improvement on private autos.”

GM, which acquired the self-driving automotive startup in 2016, would no longer fund the company, ending a mission that a whole lot of Cruise engineers had labored on for years.  

Minutes later, throughout an all-hands assembly, Cruise workers realized just a few extra particulars. The self-driving automotive firm can be absorbed into father or mother firm GM and mixed with the automaker’s personal efforts to develop driver help options — and finally totally autonomous private autos. Whether or not their jobs can be secure or minimize was, and nonetheless is, unclear.

That assembly was quick and unsatisfactory, in line with one supply, who famous that the senior management group was additionally stunned by this flip of occasions. Whitten, president and chief know-how officer Mo Elshenawy, and chief administrative officer Craig Glidden, led the all-hands. 

A number of Cruise workers who spoke to TechCrunch on situation of anonymity stated they had been “stunned” and “blindsided” by the choice. One supply advised TechCrunch that workers realized about GM’s plans the identical time the media did. 

Workers had been advised they “must be proud” of themselves and that “the know-how will stay on,” noting there can be a restructuring and that it could take a number of months for Cruise to transition to GM’s group. 

The executives offered no particulars about potential layoffs, in line with sources. Nonetheless, a number of workers advised TechCrunch they count on job cuts. Whereas particulars are slim, it’s probably that essentially the most susceptible will probably be non-engineering roles or these associated to robotaxi operations, together with authorities affairs, communications groups, floor operations, and distant help groups within the cities the place Cruise has slowly restarted testing, comparable to Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas.

Our supply advised TechCrunch that that they had been following a roadmap to launch a driverless service in Houston in 2025, and weren’t anticipating this. 

Cruise has been beneath strain to commercialize robotaxis — and generate income — for years. And at one level, hopes and ambitions had been excessive. In 2021, GM projected that Cruise would have tens of hundreds of custom-built Origin robotaxis on the highway that might generate $50 billion in annual revenue by the tip of the last decade. 

The corporate was finally pressured to push again its formidable deadline, like many different autonomous automobile startups. 

Cruise lastly acquired in August 2023 the ultimate allow required by California regulators to function commercially in San Francisco. Two months later, the corporate would come beneath intense scrutiny following an October 2 incident that left a pedestrian caught beneath after which dragged by one in every of its robotaxis. That incident, and Cruise’s actions within the fast aftermath, led to Cruise shedding its permits to function in California, grounding its total U.S. fleet, its co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt stepping down, rounds of layoffs, and GM taking extra direct management over what was as soon as a promising self-driving startup.

Whilst GM tried to reign in prices, all roads appeared to level towards a reboot.  

In June, GM handed Cruise a $850 million lifeline to assist it relaunch testing of its robotaxis in Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston. Cruise even signed a partnership cope with Uber to launch its robotaxis on the Uber platform in 2025.