A self-driving vehicle company actively testing on public roads in Pittsburgh is undergoing companywide layoffs amid a strategic restructuring.
A spokesperson for Motional declined to comment on how many employees were impacted in the Pittsburgh area or in total, stating that "roles were impacted across functions and locations. We're not sharing further details at this time." A reportedly laid-off senior employee indicated on LinkedIn that approximately one third of the company's total employees were impacted by the layoffs.
This is the second round of layoffs that the company has seen this year. In March, the company laid off 5% of its approximately 1,300 person workforce. According to the Pittsburgh Business Times' List of robotics and AI companies with local operations, last published in August 2023, Motional employed around 400 in the region.
During a meeting Tuesday, employees were informed of the restructuring and that layoffs would occur. Affected employees received notice by email after the meeting ended.
"In collaboration with Motional's shareholders, we've updated our strategic plan to focus resources on the continued development and generalization of our core driverless technology while de-emphasizing near-term commercial deployments and ancillary activities," CEO Karl Iagnemma wrote in a statement. "This updated strategy requires a streamlining of our teams, resulting in a reduction of staff across the business. The team members leaving Motional have my deepest appreciation for their contributions to our goals."
The company also will be halting its commercial operations, which includes automated Uber and Lyft services in Las Vegas and Uber Eats deliveries in Santa Monica. While automated, these services still required a human in the vehicle for safety reasons. The company had expected to expand its robotaxi services this year, but are instead pushing that expansion back to 2026.
The restructuring comes just one week after the company received a $475 million investment from partial owner Hyundai. Additionally, Hyundai spent $448 million to buy out portions of automative technology company Aptiv's common equity interest in Motional. Motional is a joint venture between the two companies and Aptiv indicated early this year that it would not provide any further capital support.
In addition to Pittsburgh, the company operate offices in Las Vegas, Milpitas, Singapore and Venice, California, and has its headquarters in Boston.
