Massive Layoffs Hit Troubled Robotaxi Developer Cruise

Cruise, General Motors' self-driving development subsidiary, will lay off almost a quarter of its workforce--about 900 employees--the company announced Thursday. The cuts are part of a broader restructuring to focus the robotaxi unit on a narrower path to commercialization. Instead of expanding its commercial robotaxi service to multiple US cities, the company will relaunch its currently paused service in just one. Cruise wants to "enhance our safety standards and processes before we scale," company co-president and CTO Mo ElShenawy wrote in a letter to employees announcing the layoffs today. A company blog post said that 24 percent of full-time Cruise employees will be let go, with a focus on field and commercial operations, and corporate staffing, though some engineers are also affected.