edited by: Mohammad Haris
Last Update: March 03, 2023, 10:25 AM IST
Even in January, Google fired 12,000 employees.
Waymo has eliminated some engineering roles as part of the cuts to “focus on commercial success.”
Waymo, the self-driving technology unit of Google parent Alphabet, has laid off 137 employees in its second round of job cuts this year, bringing its total workforce down to 8 percent, according to the news agency. reuters, Even in January, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sacked 12,000 employees.
With the latest layoffs, Waymo has laid off 209 employees this year. The company has eliminated some engineering roles as part of the cuts to “focus on business success,” the company said in a statement. reuters,
The job cuts at Waymo are part of broader layoffs in the auto and tech industry, including at Rivian Automotive Inc, General Motors Co and Meta Platforms Inc. Companies in general have found it difficult to develop fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) that can go everywhere. That has proven to be more difficult and more expensive than expected, and the prospects for a profitable robotaxi business may be many years away.
Investors and industry watchers are concerned about the billions of dollars that have poured into the self-driving technology sector in the short time it has taken to commercialize it.
Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG pulled the plug on self-driving unit Argo AI in November. General Motors Co. will spend nearly $2 billion in 2022 on its robotaxi unit, Cruise, and said it expects to spend even more this year.
In November 2022, activist investor TCI Fund Management said Waymo was the largest component of Google-parent’s Other Bets segment and did not justify excessive investment.
Alphabet said in January that it would eliminate 12,000 jobs, affecting a significant number of employees supporting experimental projects. Its health sciences unit, Verily Life Sciences, said in January it had laid off more than 200 employees, or about 15 percent of its workforce.
The year 2023 is going to be the worst year for tech workers as 417 companies have laid off more than 1.2 lakh employees globally in just two months. In comparison, 1,046 tech companies – ranging from Big Tech to startups – laid off over 1,61 lakh employees in 2022, according to data from layoff tracking site Layoffs.fyi.
In January alone, nearly 1 lakh tech workers lost their jobs globally, dominated by companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others. Overall, around 3 lakh tech workers have lost jobs now in 2022 and till February this year.
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