Nine Cruise managers and executives who worked in commercial, legal and policy departments have left the GM subsidiary following an initial internal analysis of the Oct. 2 incident that left a pedestrian pinned down and then dragged by one of the robots her.
The departures were shared with employees via an internal Slack message. Cruise spokesman Erik Moser confirmed the departures and shared a statement, but declined to comment on whether those employees were fired. TechCrunch was able to identify that David Estrada, who left self-driving vehicle startup Nuro in July to lead Cruise’s government affairs division, and COO Gil West were among those fired. West has since updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate that his employment has ended.
“Today, following an initial analysis of the October 2nd incident and Cruise’s response to it, nine people have departed from Cruise. These include key leaders from Legal, Government Affairs and Commercial, as well as Security and Systems. As a company, we are committed to full transparency and focus on rebuilding trust and operating with the highest standards of safety, integrity and accountability, and we believe new leadership is needed to achieve these goals.”
The initial analysis was conducted by Cruise’s board and is not part of the Quinn Emmanuel firm’s investigation, which has not yet been released.
The departures come three weeks after co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt resigned and less than two months after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s licenses to operate autonomous vehicles on public roads following an Oct. 2 incident that saw a pedestrian — who had initially been hit by a human-driven car and landed in the path of a Cruise robotaxi — fell over and was dragged 20 feet by the AV. A video, seen by TechCrunch a day after the incident, showed the robotaxi braking aggressively and coming to a stop on top of the woman. The DMV suspension order said Cruz withheld about seven seconds of video, which showed the robotaxi then trying to pull over and then drag the woman 20 feet.
Morale at Cruise has been low since the Oct. 2 incident, with employees pointing the finger at poor management that did not prioritize safety at the company. Without commercial licenses to operate in San Francisco and an internal decision to stop driverless fleets in other states, the company laid off contract workers, further deepening the malaise.
The initial layoffs affected contract workers who were tasked with cleaning, charging and maintaining the vehicles as well as answering customer support inquiries. Not all temporary workers, who are employed by third parties, were dismissed. More layoffs affecting full-time workers are expected this month.
