A media outlet’s account of an all-hands meeting for embattled autonomous-vehicle company Cruise says job cuts may follow other measures to shore up safety and rebuild trust.
According to Forbes, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told employees at a recent meeting that layoffs were likely, before adding in a follow-up meeting that he understood that talking about them could be stressful and apologizing.
Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, announced a recall of all of its vehicles to allow for software upgrades this week. The recall was due to an Oct. 2 incident where a person was dragged by a Cruise vehicle after another vehicle knocked her into its path.
According to the recall notice filed with federal regulators, the Cruise “inaccurately characterized the collision as a lateral collision” which led the vehicle to pull over out of traffic instead of remaining still.
In a blog post Wednesday, the company also announced that it plans to carry out additional measures to help rebuild consumer trust and shore up safety protocols. On Oct. 24, the state Department of Motor Vehicles suspended its license for Cruise, which had been transporting passengers without human drivers throughout San Francisco.
Some of the safety measures described in the Wednesday blog post include naming a vice president to a new role as interim chief safety officer and retaining law and engineering firms to respectively examine and analyze the Oct. 2 incident.
A Cruise spokesperson contacted for comment did not immediately respond Wednesday morning.
According to GM’s third-quarter earnings report, Cruise has lost more than $2 billion this year through the end of September.
This is a developing story.
