Cruise begins layoffs after suspending its self-driving robotaxis following a collision that dragged pedestrian beneath car

• Some Cruise contractors have been laid off following its suspension of robotaxi operations.
• Cruise’s CEO also reportedly told staff this week that layoffs involving full-time staff are coming.
• Cruise recently lost its robotaxi permit in California after incidents involving its autonomous cars.

Cruise contractors were hit with layoffs after the self-driving car company had its permit revoked in California and subsequently suspended all of its driverless robotaxi operations nationwide.

And it sounds like more cuts involving full-time staff are on the way.

The autonomous vehicle company confirmed to Insider that some of its contract workers who were involved in the company’s robotaxi operations had been laid off, but declined to provide a specific number or locations impacted.

“Cruise has made the difficult decision to reduce a portion of the contingent workforce that supported driverless ridehail operations,” a Cruise spokesperson told Insider. “These contingent workers were responsible for work such as cleaning, charging and maintaining the fleet, and we’re grateful for their contributions.”

The workers impacted in the announced layoffs weren’t directly employed by Cruise, but rather employees contracted through third-party vendors and staffing agencies.

But it seems like full time employees should be worried too. Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt appeared to confirm that the company would have to go forward with layoffs of full-time staff, Forbes reported, citing audio of a Monday all-hands meeting that it had obtained.

“We are still working through what that means for the company and who’s going to be affected by that and we don’t have all the answers yet,” Vogt said, according to Forbes. “But what I can do is commit to providing more details within the next three weeks. So, importantly that’s not when layoffs would occur for full time employees, that’s when we’re going to give you an update on what that timeline might be.”

Cruise did not respond to Insider’s request for comment on the potential layoffs of full time employees.

It’s safe to say Cruise has had a rough couple of months. The company got the go-ahead to expand its driverless ride services in San Francisco back in August then cut back its operations by 50% barely more than a week later after several incidents involving its vehicles. In October, Cruise lost its permit in California entirely after an incident in which a pedestrian was dragged beneath one of its driverless vehicles 20 feet after it ran her over after she was first struck by a different car. GM, Cruise’s parent company, then paused all Cruise robotaxi operations nationwide.

California regulators said the company’s vehicles posed “an unreasonable risk to public safety.” And internal documents recently showed that Cruise apparently knew that its driverless cars had trouble correctly identifying children.