GM’s Cruise Laying Off A Hefty Portion Of Its Workforce

GM’s full acquisition of the Cruise autonomy company was completed this week, and the acquisition comes with layoffs. Job cuts were predictable when GM announced it was winding down the Cruise robotaxi business, and now they’re official, according to the Detroit Free Press.

According to a report from the Detroit Free Press, the job cuts total about 1,000. However, a GM representative said fewer than 20 of those lay-offs were in Michigan. Since Cruise will no longer be operating ride-hailing in San Francisco, Dallas, Phoenix, and Miami, those areas were most affected by the lay-offs.

“We are grateful for their passion and contributions to help us reach this stage, and our focus is on supporting them into their next chapter with severance packages and career support,” a Cruise spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the laid-off workers. “While not an easy decision, we are focused on combining efforts with General Motors to accelerate autonomy at scale on personal autonomous vehicles.”

The remaining Cruise staff, which is estimated to be about 1,000 people, will be absorbed into GM’s Super Cruise team. They’re primarily engineering and technical staff; the jobs that were eliminated were largely administrative roles. GM now claims the hands-free driving system covers 750,000 miles of North American highways. It will use the data and expertise from Cruise to improve hands-free driving for retail vehicles.

“By combining the specialized technology and talent at Cruise with our team developing Super Cruise, we’ll have the ability to accelerate our work on both assisted driving and autonomous driving,” said Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering. “We look forward to teaming with Cruise to accelerate our work together.”

GM made the call to drop Cruise robotaxi efforts in December 2024. “GM is committed to delivering the best driving experiences to our customers in a disciplined and capital-efficient manner,” said GM CEO Mary Barra at the time. “Cruise has been an early innovator in autonomy, and the deeper integration of our teams, paired with GM’s strong brands, scale, and manufacturing strength, will help advance our vision for the future of transportation.”