Motional, the self-driving car company emerging from a joint venture between Hyundai Moor Group and Aptiv, told its employees on Wednesday that it will cut about 5% of its workforce, TechCrunch has learned.
The cuts, which translate to fewer than 70 people, mostly affect management roles and some employees working in Boston, one of several cities where it is testing self-driving vehicles, according to sources who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on behalf of Motional. . The self-driving car company last laid off workers in December 2022, when it cut about 10% of its workforce. This previous layoff mostly affected the company's operations in Pittsburgh, where it tests autonomous vehicles.
Motional operates a self-driving taxi service in Las Vegas (still with human safety operators behind the wheel) on the Uber, Lyft, and Via platforms. It also has an independent delivery pilot with Uber Eats in Santa Monica, California.
A Motional spokesperson confirmed the layoffs.
“Motional recently announced steps to reallocate resources to areas of the company that will directly enable long-term business success, including staff reductions that impacted less than 5% of employees working in non-profit roles,” Motional said in an email statement. Artistic”. “We continue to recruit the critical talent needed to advance our technology and achieve our commercial goals. We are confident in our funding roadmap and are well-positioned for the next phase of our commercialization. Our team is focused on expanding our driverless services, expanding Motional’s commercial partnerships, and continuing development on Next Generation From Robotaxi Motion in collaboration with Kia.
The layoffs come one month after Aptiv, the other half of a $4 billion joint venture with Hyundai that created Motional, announced it would no longer commit capital to the endeavor.
With Aptiv withdrawing from future financing, Hyundai remains the sole backer, unless Motional is able to court another company to fund its efforts. Motional is also exploring outside financing deals, according to one of the sources. The company has previously said in earnings reports and internal meetings that it has enough runway to last through the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Despite its financial woes, the company has continued to make some progress toward its goal of launching a robotaxi service using Hyundai Ioniq 5 driverless vehicles in 2024. In November, Hyundai Motor Group and Motional announced plans to co-develop production-ready versions of the vehicle . An all-electric Ioniq 5 robot taxi at Hyundai Motor Group's new innovation hub in Singapore, the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore (HMGICS). A production-ready self-driving vehicle, equipped with a type of iteration designed for safe operations without a human driver, is a critical milestone required for commercial operations.
During CES 2024, the company announced plans to work with Kia on a next-generation vehicle that will enter commercial operations later this decade. The initial development process will begin this year, according to the company.
