IANS | 10 May, 2024
Autonomous vehicle technology company Motional has sacked around 550
employees, or about 40 per cent of its workforce, in the US, reports
said on Saturday.
Nearly 145 of the impacted staff worked in the city of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, according to a Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Notification (WARN).
According to a TechCrunch report
on Saturday, Motional “is pausing commercial operations and delaying
plans to launch a robotaxi service.”
Every team at Motional has
been affected, including the chief operating officer, Abe Ghabra. The
team working on Motional’s remote vehicle assistance platform has been
“heavily cut”.
Motional said in a statement that it has updated
its strategic plan to “focus resources on the continued development and
generalisation of our core driverless technology while de-emphasising
near-term commercial deployments and ancillary activities.”
“The team members leaving Motional have our deepest appreciation for their contributions to our goals,” it added.
Motional is a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and auto parts supplier Aptiv.
