General Motors is laying off approximately half of the remaining employees at its self-driving subsidiary, Cruise, following the automaker’s decision to discontinue the robotaxi business. The move marks a significant shift in strategy as GM redirects its focus toward personal autonomous vehicles.
The layoffs come two months after GM announced it would stop funding Cruise, which has cost the company more than $10 billion since its acquisition in 2016.
In a statement, Cruise acknowledged the job cuts, saying, “Today, Cruise shared the difficult decision to part ways with approximately 50% of its workforce. We are grateful for their passion and contributions to help us reach this stage, and our focus is on supporting them into their next chapter with severance packages and career support.”
Cruise had nearly 2,300 employees as of late 2023, meaning the layoffs could affect more than 1,000 workers.
The job reductions were first reported by TechCrunch and later confirmed by company executives. In an internal email sent Feb. 4 to all Cruise employees, Cruise President and Chief Administrative Officer Craig Glidden cited the shift in strategy as the reason for the cuts.
“With our move away from the ride-hail business and toward providing autonomous vehicles to customers alongside GM, our staffing and resource needs have dramatically changed,” Glidden wrote.
Alongside the workforce reduction, several top executives are also departing, including CEO Marc Whitten, Chief Human Resources Officer Nilka Thomas, Chief Safety Officer Steve Kenner and Chief Government Affairs Officer Rob Grant. Chief Technology Officer Mo Elshenawy will remain through April to assist with the transition.
The job cuts coincide with GM finalizing Cruise’s transition into a wholly owned subsidiary. About 88% of the remaining Cruise employees are in engineering or related roles, and those affected by the layoffs were given 60 days' notice. Cruise stated that impacted employees will receive full base pay for the duration of that period, plus eight weeks of severance. Employees with more than three years at the company will receive an additional two weeks of pay for each additional year of service.
The decline of Cruise follows a series of setbacks, including an October 2023 incident in which a Cruise robotaxi dragged a pedestrian 20 feet after the individual was struck by another vehicle. Regulatory investigations later revealed that the company had misled authorities about the incident, prompting the suspension of its commercial operations. A third-party report released in January 2024 cited culture issues, leadership failures, and regulatory missteps as key factors in the company’s struggles.
Despite Cruise once being considered a leader in autonomous mobility alongside Alphabet-backed Waymo, GM is now shifting its focus to developing personal autonomous vehicles rather than a large-scale robotaxi service.
“While not an easy decision, we are focused on combining efforts with General Motors to accelerate autonomy at scale on personal autonomous vehicles,” Cruise said in its statement.
