The autonomous vehicle company Cruise, a once prominent player in driverless taxi operations, is undergoing a significant downsizing, letting go of "nearly" 50% of its workforce. This comes in the wake of parent company General Motors (GM) shifting its focus toward refining its hands-free driver assistance system, Super Cruise, while planning the introduction of personal autonomous vehicles.

According to a TechCrunch report, Craig Glidden, Cruise's president and chief administrative officer, outlined in a companywide email that the layoffs would affect roughly 1,000 employees following GM’s announcement to cease funding the company's commercial robotaxi development. "As a result of the change in strategy we announced in December, today we will part with nearly 50% of our Cruise employee base, through a reduction in force," the email from Glidden reads. CEO Marc Whitten and several other top executives are among those departing the company.

More than 300 Cruise employees were laid off in San Francisco alone yesterday. A statement by Cruise's spokeswoman Sara Autio given to the SF Examiner confirmed the reduction included employees at the Brannan Street headquarters and two other San Francisco locations, as well as cuts to remote workers and those based in Sunnyvale and Phoenix.

The laid-off employees will remain on the Cruise payroll through April 5 and have their benefits extended until the end of that month. Severance packages have also been arranged, including eight weeks of severance pay and additional weeks for long-term employees, accompanied by three months of company-sponsored COBRA coverage and a one-year LinkedIn Premium subscription to aid in their job search, according to TechCrunch. GM's recent acquisition of Cruise, which marked the end of the subsidiary's semi-autonomy, will now see the remaining workforce join GM’s efforts in advancing driver assistance and autonomous vehicle technology.