Waymo, the self-driving division of Alphabet, has terminated over 200 workers in its second set of job cuts. According to a representative from Waymo who spoke to TechCrunch, the recent layoffs, which mainly affected engineering positions, are a component of a larger company-wide reorganisation aimed at achieving fiscal responsibility, shared IANS.
Alphabet recently let go of 12,000 employees, including 100 robots that were responsible for cleaning its cafeteria at the headquarters. The recent job cuts in its self-driving division will reduce its workforce by 8 per cent.
Waymo has recently revealed its intentions to conduct tests of fully autonomous vehicles in Los Angeles. Additionally, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) granted Waymo permission to carry out its driverless pilot program. It also enabled companies working with autonomous vehicles (AVs) to transport passengers in AVs without a driver for testing purposes.
Reportedly, the company also intended to launch its pilot program for driverless rides in San Francisco, for which it got permission by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to charge for self-driving rides. The self-driving unit also recently obtained funding from Google as well.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, had previously stated that its autonomous vehicles were solely accessible to employees but would eventually expand to incorporate participants in the company’s ‘Trusted Tester’ initiative.
Talking on the current layoffs happening at Google, even though it happend weeks ago, affected employees are still sharing their stories. However, one thing that can be seen is that the sudden layoff impacted all regions, and even high-performing employees were not immune to Google’s downsizing.
Harsh Vijayvargiya, a former Google employee, recently recounted his layoff experience on LinkedIn. He was terminated from his position at the Google Operations Center, and he expressed shock and disappointment upon receiving an email notification from the company about his dismissal.
Vijayvargiya mentioned that he was a top performer at Google and felt proud to be a part of the company. However, like 12,000 others, he was affected by the recent layoffs at Google. He was confused and frustrated by the lack of explanation for why he was chosen to be let go, asking himself ‘why me?’ He also stated that the layoff significantly disrupted his financial plans.
In another incident, Vishal Arora, an Indian-American who served as the head of engineering for Google’s California office, received a layoff email at 2:00AM. However, he dismissed the email as spam and did not read it. Later, Vishal was surprised to discover that he was among the 12,000 employees who were let go by Google. He expressed his disappointment in a LinkedIn post, describing the stress of having to search for a new job despite delivering successful results.
