Cruise, a self-driving car company under GM that has suspended its robotaxi business, will lay off about 50% of its employees, including its CEO and top executives
Cruise to slash workforce by nearly 50% after GM cuts funding to robotaxi operations | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/04/cruise-to-slash-workforce-by-50-after-gm-cuts-funding-to-robotaxi-operations/
GM cuts 50% of Cruise staff after ending robotaxi business
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/gm-cuts-50percent-of-cruise-staff-after-ending-robotaxi-business.html
In December 2024, GM announced the integration of Cruise and GM's technical teams as part of a 'realignment of our autonomous vehicle strategy.' As a result, GM revealed that it would stop investing in Cruise's robotaxi business. GM stated that 'the robotaxi business has become increasingly competitive in recent years, and it will take significant time and resources to expand the business.' In addition, Cruise has reported that due to the suspension of funding, it will stop its robotaxi business and focus on building personal autonomous vehicle technology.
In February 2025, Cruise sent an email to employees stating, 'As a result of the strategic changes announced in December, we will now be reducing our workforce and letting go of approximately 50% of Cruise's employee base.' Cruise has approximately 2,300 employees as of December 2024, and the reductions will result in the layoffs of approximately 1,000 employees. Cruise said that approximately 88% of the remaining employees are in engineering-related roles.
'As we transition away from the robotaxi business and toward bringing self-driving cars to customers alongside GM, our staffing and resource needs have changed dramatically,' said Craig Glidden, Cruise's president and chief administrative officer. 'We are making these reductions to align our team with new needs and focus on continuing to build world-class self-driving technology.'
As part of the cuts, CEO Whitten, Chief Safety Officer Kaner, Chief Human Resources Officer Nilka Thomas and Global Head of Public Policy Rob Grant are also leaving Cruise.
Cruise said, 'We have made the difficult decision to let go of half of our workforce. We are grateful for their passion and contributions to date. We are focused on supporting them on their new paths with severance packages and career support. This was not an easy decision, but together with our work with GM, we are focused on accelerating personal autonomous vehicle technology at scale.'
Employees who are laid off will receive their full base salary for the remainder of their time working at Cruise, eight weeks of severance pay, and will receive transition assistance, including a one-year subscription to LinkedIn Premium.
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