Cruise, a provider of automated ride-hailing services, laid off a portion of its contingent workforce during a pause in its driverless operations, the company confirmed to SIA.
“Cruise has made the difficult decision to reduce a portion of the contingent workforce that supported driverless ride-hail operations,” the company said in a statement to SIA. “These contingent workers were responsible for work such as cleaning, charging and maintaining the fleet, and we’re grateful for their contributions.”
These contingent workers are contracted through vendors and third-party staffing agencies; they are not directly employed by Cruise.
The announcement comes as the company works to shore up safety. The Associated Press reported General Motors-owned Cruise had a driverless vehicle in a collision involving a pedestrian on Oct. 2 in San Francisco.
In a blog post on Nov. 8, Cruise said it issued a voluntary software recall based on an analysis of post-collision response.
“The recall addresses circumstances in which the Cruise collision detection subsystem may cause the Cruise AV to attempt to pull over out of traffic instead of remaining stationary when a pullover is not the desired post-collision response,” according to the post.
Cruise is also conducting a search to hire a chief safety officer, who will report directly to the CEO.
The company continues to offer limited supervised driving in markets where it had previously operated, but is not currently operating its driverless ride-hail service. Mapping and supervised testing with a safety driver behind the wheel will continue in order to improve the driverless technology.