Cruise Cuts 1,000 Jobs, CEO Out as GM Kills Robotaxi Business

General Motors’ self-driving unit, Cruise, cut nearly half its workforce on Tuesday—more than 1,000 jobs—and ousted CEO Marc Whitten. The mass layoff marks the end of GM’s commercial robotaxi business as the automaker shifts focus to selling personal self-driving cars and driver-assist systems. CNBC reported the cuts early Tuesday.

Key Facts

• 1,000+ employees laid off (approx. 50% of staff).
• CEO Marc Whitten and Chief Safety Officer Steve Kenner are leaving the company.
• Severance includes 8 weeks of pay plus 2 additional weeks for every year of service over three years.
• Source: CNBC, SiliconANGLE

The End of the Robotaxi

GM is officially done with the robotaxi dream. After spending years and billions of dollars trying to build a fleet of taxi cabs without drivers, the company is changing course. In an email to staff, Cruise President Craig Glidden said the company’s needs had “dramatically changed” as it moves away from ride-hailing.

Instead of running a taxi service, the remaining Cruise team will work on “Super Cruise” and other driver-assist tools for cars that regular people can buy. Roughly 88% of the workers keeping their jobs are engineers, signaling that GM still wants the tech, just not the taxi business.

Executive Exodus

The cuts go straight to the top. CEO Marc Whitten, who took the job just seven months ago, is out. Other top leaders, including Chief Safety Officer Steve Kenner and Chief HR Officer Nilka Thomas, are also leaving. This leadership wipeout comes just two months after GM announced it would stop funding the robotaxi operations entirely.

The Package

Cruise is giving affected workers 60 days of notice. During this time, they will stay on the payroll with full pay. Once their time is up, they will get a severance package starting at eight weeks of pay. Long-time employees (those with more than three years at the company) will get an extra two weeks of pay for every additional year they worked there. The company is also covering COBRA health insurance for three months.