Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thank you, Mr. Air, a netizen of CTOnews.com, for your clue delivery! On March 2, Waymo, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, announced on Wednesday that it would cut 137 jobs in the second round of layoffs this year. Together with the first round of layoffs in early January, Waymo has cut 209 jobs so far this year, or 8 per cent of its workforce.

Waymo said in a statement that it had eliminated some engineer positions as part of the layoffs to "focus on business success". In other words, the company is cutting costs as much as possible while continuing to develop and deploy autopilot technology. Waymo is trying to commercialize self-driving car technology, but it has yet to generate much revenue to support operations.

Waymo's move is part of a broader layoff across the auto and technology industries. Riyan, General Motors, Meta, Twitter and Amazon have all announced layoffs.

Overall, companies have found that developing fully self-driving cars (AV) that can go anywhere has proved harder and more expensive than expected, and it may take years for the self-driving taxi business to become profitable. Investors and industry observers have been worried about investing billions of dollars in self-driving technology in a short period of time to commercialize it.

Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Motor Co., Ltd. stopped self-driving business Argo AI in November last year. Cruise, GM's self-driving taxi subsidiary, spent nearly $2 billion in 2022 and said it expected to spend more this year.

Many analysts and investors say Waymo's layoffs are not just affected by the market downturn. Waymo has received a lot of investment from its parent company, and activist investor TCI Fund Management said in November that Waymo was the largest part of Alphabet's "other bets" division, but it had not yet proved the value of this "overinvestment".

As news of more layoffs came out, Waymo announced plans to start testing fully self-driving vehicles in Los Angeles, meaning there would be no human safety operator behind the steering wheel. Expanding self-driving taxi services to new cities is the key to Waymo's commercialization strategy, which is likely to provide a good return on investment.

Waymo said the company was in a strong position to move forward with a clear direction and huge opportunities to seize. A Waymo spokesman noted that the company's growing business in San Francisco and its expanding commercial business in Phoenix are testament to the company's ability to develop, deploy and commercialize its self-driving technology.

Alphabet said in January that it would cut 12000 jobs, which will affect a large number of employees who support pilot projects. Verly Life Sciences, Alphabet's health sciences unit, said in January that it had laid off more than 200 people, or about 15 per cent of its workforce. Meanwhile, industrial robot subsidiary Intrative and internal incubator Area 120 have all laid off staff.

Although Alphabet initially cut spending more slowly than its peers in the industry, investor pressure and a sluggish digital advertising economy forced the tech giant to "slim down". However, Waymo's layoffs are related not only to the parent company's strategy to control spending, but also to its greater focus on AI.

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