Google parent Alphabet lays off hundreds of employees in Waymo in second round of cuts

Google parent company Alphabet's self-driving technology unit, Waymo, has announced its second round of job cuts this year, resulting in 137 employees being laid off. This brings the total cuts to 8% of its workforce in 2023. The company cited a focus on commercial success as the reason for the cuts and eliminated several engineering roles. The layoffs are part of a larger trend in the tech and auto industries, with companies such as General Motors, Rivian Automotive, and Meta Platforms also announcing job cuts. The development of fully autonomous vehicles has proven more difficult and expensive than expected, and the prospect of a profitable robotaxi business appears to be several years away.

Investors and industry watchers have expressed concern about the billions of dollars poured into the self-driving technology sector in a short span of time to commercialize it. This has led to companies like Ford and Volkswagen pulling the plug on their self-driving units. General Motors burned through nearly $2 billion in 2022 at its robotaxi unit, Cruise, and anticipates spending even more this year. In November 2022, activist investor TCI Fund Management expressed concern that Waymo was the biggest component of the Google-parent's Other Bets segment and had not justified excessive investment.

In January, Alphabet announced it would slash 12,000 jobs, affecting a significant number of employees who support experimental projects. Its health science unit, Verily Life Sciences, also laid off over 200 employees, or about 15 per cent of its workforce. This year is set to become the worst year for tech employees, with 417 companies laying off more than 1.2 lakh workers globally in just two months. In comparison, 1,046 tech companies laid off more than 1.61 lakh employees in 2022. In January alone, close to 1 lakh tech employees lost their jobs globally, with companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce dominating the layoffs. In total, nearly 3 lakh tech employees have lost their jobs in 2022 and till February this year.

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