GM’s self-driving car company Cruise lays off 900 workers – nearly 25 percent of its workforce – ahead of Christmas after a series of safety mishaps and having its permit suspended in California

General Motors' troubled robotaxi unit Cruise laid off almost a quarter of its workforce after a series of safety incidents and the recall of some of its cars.

The company announced it would lay off 900 of its 3,800 employees – 24 percent – ​​to cut costs after the series of safety issues.

Court documents revealed that the autonomous vehicle unit could be fined about $1.5 million for allegedly covering up the severity of an accident when a woman was trapped under one of their cars.

Mo ElShenawy, Cruise's president and CTO, said: “We are making workforce reductions that will affect 24 percent of full-time cruisers through no fault of their own.”

'We are reducing the number of employees in operations and other areas. These consequences are largely external to technology, although some technical functions are also affected.'

Mo ElShenawy, president and CTO of Cruise, said the company is restructuring to focus on delivering improvements in technology and vehicle performance

On October 2, a woman was struck by an unrelated car in San Francisco, putting her into the path of a driverless cruise car, which braked hard before colliding with her.

The robotaxi stopped on top of the woman for 30 minutes as she screamed for help.

'As we shared, our goal is to focus our work on a fully self-driving L4 service that meets a new AV (autonomous vehicle) performance standard, prioritize the Bolt platform, relaunch ridehail in one city ​​for starters, and improve our safety standards. and processes before we scale,” says ElShenawy.

“As a result of our decision to delay commercialization, we are restructuring to focus on delivering improvements to our technology and vehicle performance that will increase confidence in our AVs.”

Last October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles ordered Cruise to remove its self-driving cars from state highways, calling them a risk to the public and saying the company had misrepresented the safety of its technology.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruise's pedestrian risks in October, and Cruise's board hired law firm Quinn Emanuel to review Cruise management's responses to regulators investigating the Oct. 2 accident.

Footage taken by the Cruise vehicle and viewed by NBC showed the car hitting the woman and throwing her into the path of the taxi, which then ran her over. The driver of the sedan then fled the scene.

In the October 2 incident, a passenger was trapped under a cruise taxi for 30 minutes after another car pushed her into its path

The vehicle initially stopped but still struck the person, before then pulling to the right to get out of traffic, dragging the woman about twenty feet.

She became trapped under one of the cruise vehicle's tires and was seriously injured.

Footage posted to social media shows the victim's feet sticking out from under the white vehicle as a first responder checks on her.

Police officers attempted to communicate with the trapped woman, with one officer kneeling on the sidewalk and shining a light under the car.

The new footage from the vehicle showed that the car continued driving after the initial stop and attempted to perform a 'pullover manoeuvre', traveling approximately six meters with the pedestrian still trapped underneath.

In September, two of Cruise's driverless taxis blocked an ambulance carrying a seriously injured car crash victim, who later died in hospital.

CEO Kyle Vogt resigned after the incidents and in his resignation took responsibility for Cruise's shortcomings, which included losses of approximately $2 billion.

The San Francisco-based company has been testing its fleet in the city since 2020 and started offering driverless taxi rides last year.

The company has since expanded service to Austin, Phoenix and Houston.

General Motors said they have lost $1.1 billion due to the United Auto Workers strike and will cut back on Cruise to save money.

When General Motors bought the company, the company expected Cruise to reach $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025 — a big jump from last year's $106 million.

During the first nine months of this year, Cruise posted a pre-tax loss of $1.9 billion.