Cruise, General Motor's autonomous vehicle subsidiary, has laid off 67 workers in Bellevue, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed with the state on Monday.
San Francisco-based Cruise on Thursday announced it was laying off 24% of its roughly 3,800-person workforce, or about 900 roles. A Cruise spokesperson said the company wasn't disclosing information beyond the WARN, including how many Cruise employees remain in Bellevue.
The company also said it is closing its Bellevue office, but that the decision was due to low use and was made months before the layoffs, and that local Cruise employees will have access to office, at 3180 139th Ave SE in the Sunset North corporate campus, until Dec. 22.
In a note to employees posted on Cruise's website, Cruise President and Chief Technology Officer Mo Elshenawy said the company was cutting operations roles but keeping most engineering employees.
"As a result of our decision to slow down commercialization, we are restructuring to focus on delivering the improvements to our tech and vehicle performance that will build trust in our AVs," Elshenawy wrote in the note. "Many of you will be impacted because we aren’t commercializing as quickly, and therefore don’t need support in certain cities or facilities. In other cases, we restructured teams based on the work we’re prioritizing. We didn’t take any of these decisions lightly."
Cruise was founded in 2013 and acquired by GM in 2016. The company has landed $9.25 billion in funding, and four months ago it gained approval to operate its driverless vehicles in San Francisco during the day. It had previously only been allowed to operate them in the city from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
In early October, however, one of Cruise's cars dragged a pedestrian about 20 feet after the pedestrian was hit by another car and thrown into the path of the Cruise vehicle. The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's permit to operate its vehicles in the state, and Cruise voluntarily suspended its driverless vehicle operations nationwide just days later.
Co-founders Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan, formerly the CEO and chief product officer, respectively, resigned Nov. 19. Elshenawy, previously the executive vice president of engineering, then took over the president and CTO role. Cruise fired multiple senior leaders earlier this month.
Laid-off Cruise employees will receive pay through at least April 8, health benefits, immigration support and their January bonuses, among other benefits.
In the note to employees, Elshenawy said Cruise plans to relaunch its driverless ride-hailing service in one city to start while improving its safety standards before ramping up again.
"This is very different from our prior plans to expand into more than a dozen new cities in 2024," Elshenawy said in the note.
