A shifting of gears is underway at Aurora Innovation Inc. as the company confirmed that the Pittsburgh-based firm issued job cuts across its workforce at the start of this year.
It's news that follows previous messaging from CEO and Co-Founder Chris Urmson who stressed that layoffs weren't on the dashboard for the autonomous vehicle developer, which is working to commercially launch a self-driving trucking product by year's end.
Urmson's comments dating back to February 2023 also came during a period when many tech companies started to issue widespread layoffs, positioning Aurora (NASDAQ: AUR) as an exception to the norm at the time and amid broader unfavorable market conditions.
But without a strong revenue source ahead of the commercial launch of its AV product, the publicly traded company has begun to cut costs in areas now affecting its broader workforce.
"At the beginning of January, we reviewed the entire organization to ensure we were working as effectively as possible and with the velocity required to achieve our commercial launch later this year. Through this process, a limited number of roles were eliminated which impacted 3 percent of our total workforce," Cristopher Barrett, senior vice president of people at Aurora, said in an email statement. "During the recent market uncertainty, we have been incredibly thoughtful in our resourcing in order to minimize such actions. We are grateful for the contributions of these individuals and are supporting them through this transition."
An Aurora spokesperson declined to provide additional context or details when pressed for comment.
As of August 2023, Aurora reported to the Pittsburgh Business Times that it had about 1,600 workers, 800 of whom worked out of its Pittsburgh offices, which includes its more than 100,000-square-foot headquarters on Smallman Street in the Strip District. Reducing that workforce figure by 3% would equate to about 50 people companywide.
Last July, Aurora raised $820 million in new capital that the company said granted it the ability to sustain operations "well into 2025" and beyond the launch of its autonomous trucking product in late 2024.
During its most recently reported fiscal quarter that ended on Sept. 30, 2023, Aurora posted a $182 million research and development operating expense, much of which is tied to employee compensation and benefits. It posed an overall net loss of $190 million for the quarter and had $1.4 billion in total cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments on hand.
A previous version of this story miscalculated and therefore overestimated the potential number of people affected by Aurora's layoffs. The story has since been updated to reflect a likely more accurate figure, though the company has denied requests for specific details about the total number of roles affected.
