Waymo Lays Off a Number of Employees As Autonomous Tech Hits Roadblock

Waymo, a self-driving tech company, has reportedly laid off a “limited” number of employees this week. Automotive News reports that the company didn’t disclose just how many people were laid off, but the cuts do seem to be coming from multiple departments.

The news comes during a tough time for the autonomous vehicle industry and the tech sector as a whole. Waymo’s parent company, Alphabet, laid off 12,000 people at Google this week.

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While we don’t know exactly how many people have been laid off at Waymo, at least two dozen now-former employees have reportedly announced their layoffs on LinkedIn. The layoffs seem to be across the board, with cuts in perception, system and software engineering, fleet maintenance and system integration among others.

AutoNews reports that recruiters and friends of the recently-laid off are pointing them in the direction of other self-driving companies like Cruise, Gatik, Kodiak Robotics, Motional and Outrider. But, it’s not all peachy keen in the world of autonomous technology. Motional reportedly cut an undisclosed number of jobs back in December, and Argo AI — a joint venture between Ford and Volkswagen — completely shut down.