There are a lot of shitty ways to find out the project you’ve been working on for months or years has been scrapped, but few seem as inhuman as a Slack notification. That’s exactly how Cruise CEO Marc Whitten let his team know all of their work was for naught. Earlier this week, he posted a message in the company’s announcements channel with a press release link called “GM to refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles.” It’s no wonder people aren’t fans of CEOs right now.
Whitten, who took the top job at Cruise back in June, said GM would no longer be funding the company, abruptly ending the work of hundreds of Cruise engineers, according to TechCrunch. Minutes later, during an all-hands meeting, employees learned even more about the grim fate of their company. It’s apparently being absorbed into GM with the idea that they’ll combine forces to develop more advanced driver assistance technology. The goal is still to eventually build a fully autonomous car. However, instead of taxis, they’ll be personal vehicles.
Because companies suck, executives didn’t provide any details about potential layoffs at Cruise. Still, several employees told TechCrunch they expect job cuts in areas like non-engineering roles related to robotaxi operations such as government affairs, communications, ground operations and remote assistance teams in cities where Cruise vehicles were on the road.
Here’s more from TechCrunch on what was going down at Cruise’s office when the announcement came:
That meeting was short and unsatisfactory, according to one source, who noted that the senior leadership team was also surprised by this turn of events. Whitten, president and chief technology officer Mo Elshenawy, and chief administrative officer Craig Glidden led the all-hands.
Several Cruise employees who spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity said they were “surprised” and “blindsided” by the decision. One source told TechCrunch that employees learned about GM’s plans the same time the media did.
Staff were told they “should be proud” of themselves and that “the technology will live on,” noting there would be a restructuring and that it would take several months for Cruise to transition to GM’s team.
The announcement was a real shock to folks working at Cruise. One source told the outlet that they had been closely following a roadmap that would culminate in the launch of a driverless car service in Houston sometime in 2025. For those of you who aren’t paying attention, 2025 is in like three weeks.
Back in June, GM gave Cruise $850 million to play with in an effort to relaunch its robotaxi programs in Phoenix, Dallas and Houston, according to TechCrunch It even signed a deal with Uber to launch robotaxis on its platform in 2025.
Listen, I’m not saying robotaxis in any form are going to be the transportation method of the future. All I’m saying is that if you’re going to destroy the hard work of hundreds of people — potentially ruining their livelihood — perhaps it’s best not to do so over Slack.
