The cuts, which result in fewer than 70 people, most of them in management positions and some workers, showing up in Boston, one of several cities where the company is testing autonomous vehicles, according to sources who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak. for Motional. The autonomous vehicle company last experienced layoffs in December 2022, when it cut about 10% of its workforce. This earlier layoff primarily affected the company’s operations in Pittsburgh, where it is testing autonomous vehicles.
Motional operates a self-driving car taxi service in Las Vegas (always with human protection operators at the wheel) on the Uber, Lyft, and Via platforms. He also has an autonomous delivery pilot task with Uber Eats in Santa Monica, California.
A spokesperson for Motional showed the layoffs.
“Motional recently announced measures to reallocate resources to business spaces that will directly enable long-term business success, adding discounts that impacted less than 5% of workers in non-technical roles,” Motional said in an emailed statement. Continue to lease the critical skill needed to expand our generation and achieve our business goals. We are confident in our financial roadmap and are well placed for the next phase of our commercialization. “Our team is focused on developing our driverless services. , the expansion of Motional’s business partnerships, and the future of Motional’s next-generation robotaxi in collaboration with Kia.
The layoffs come a month after Auto Aptiv — the other part of a $4 billion joint venture with Hyundai that created Motional — announced it would no longer allocate capital to the project.
With Aptiv’s withdrawal from long-term investment, Hyundai remains the sole funder, unless Motional courts another company to fund its efforts. Motional is also exploring outside investment deals, according to a source. The company has already said in internal meetings that it has enough room for manoeuvre to last until the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Despite its financial difficulties, the company has continued to make progress toward its goal of launching a robotaxi service employing five driverless Hyundai Ioniq vehicles by 2024. In November, Hyundai Motor Group and Motional announced plans to jointly develop production-ready versions of the entire car. Ioniq five electric robotaxi at the automaker’s new innovation hub in Singapore, the Hyundai Motor Group Singapore Innovation Centre (HMGICS). A production-ready autonomous vehicle, provided with the kind of redundancies designed for operations without a human driver, is a critical step required for advertising operations.
At CES 2024, the company announced plans to work with Kia on a next-generation vehicle that will enter advertising operations later this decade. The initial development process will begin this year, according to the company.