Cruise kicks out a quarter of its employees
An accident in San Francisco involving a Cruise robotaxi has far-reaching consequences: The company halts expansion plans and postpones the introduction of its own vehicle. Now a number of employees also have to leave.
The robotaxi company Cruise, which fell into crisis after an accident, is laying off almost a quarter of its employees. The subsidiary of car giant General Motors suspended its services a month ago and cut far-reaching expansion plans. As a result, 24 percent of full-time jobs are to be cut, mainly in non-technical areas, according to an email sent to employees.
In the accident at the beginning of October, a driverless Cruise car dragged a woman several meters. The pedestrian had previously been hit by another vehicle with a person at the wheel and thrown in front of the self-driving car. According to the accident report, the robotaxi braked immediately - but the woman was still thrown under the vehicle.
The Cruise cars are programmed to automatically pull over to the side of the road in some cases after collisions so as not to obstruct traffic. In this case, the software also decided to do this - even though the woman was still under the car. According to a report by the Californian traffic authority, she was dragged around six meters and the car reached a speed of over eleven kilometers per hour.
Launch of the "Origin" robotaxis postponed
Cruise has now decided not to put the first vehicles of his "Origin" robotaxis without a steering wheel and pedals on the road next year as planned. Instead, Cruise wants to continue to rely on converted cars from the GM electric model Chevy Bolt. Operations will initially only be resumed in one city. In addition to San Francisco, Cruise was on the road in five other US cities and wanted to add a dozen more in the coming year.
Last year, San Francisco became a unique test case for self-driving cabs. In addition to Cruise, Google's sister company Waymo also received permission from a Californian supervisory authority in the summer to expand its driverless transportation services throughout the city. The city council and numerous residents were against this. They argued, among other things, that the vehicles frequently blocked traffic. Waymo is allowed to continue offering its robotaxi service throughout San Francisco without a safety driver at the wheel.
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Following the accident, Cruise, known for its start-ups in autonomous driving, announces layoffs of 24% of its employees due to halted expansion plans and postponed introduction of its own vehicle. Despite the setback, San Francisco remains a key city for the company's operations, with plans for resuming services with converted Chevy Bolt vehicles in the near future.
Source: www.ntv.de
