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Waymo Layoffs

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Re: Waymo Layoffs

#21

Post by datadrivenangel »

fbdab103 wrote: post #16
duxup wrote: post #5

I can’t imagine three layoffs in a year is great for morale. Is there a reason they chose this sort of trickling layoffs approach?

My CEO just announced this strategy. Layoffs are to begin...soonish? Maybe next week? Up to the end of 2024. Need to chop $$$X from the budget. Which is to say, assuming you are not actively looking for the exit door, why even bother to do your job? At-will employment and all that, but it is an entirely different thing if the company has announced they have a fixed dollar expense target to hit. Layoffs have always ha…

Astoundingly high or astoundingly low?

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#22

Post by jmknoll »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #11
piffey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly with Curb in NYC have been more than happy with taxis. Wish it would be adopted in more cities.

What's Curb relative to Uber/Lyft or legacy taxis?

I only know Curb as a booking app for regular taxis. It’s generally less expensive than Lyft/Uber in Manhattan.

I’m not aware of any connection it has to Waymo though.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#23

Post by blamazon »

duxup wrote: post #5

I can’t imagine three layoffs in a year is great for morale. Is there a reason they chose this sort of trickling layoffs approach?

Who needs morale? Fear and uncertainty are effective motivators.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#24

Post by smcin »

rnk wrote: post #3

Is there a conclusion that the taxi service kind of works and just needs to fix a few minor issues around the edges fixed to work in limited city use in many cities, or is it so far away it's not even close?

Translation: "limited city use in [selected] cities" seems to mean:

- no driving on freeway with passengers (that alone is a huge limitation. You couldn't get to most major airports (in any sensible time) under that limitation. Add in trucks, rush-hour, ripple congestion, lane-splitting motorcyclists.) But presumably also, Waymo and Cruise don't want to pick an all-out war with human drivers working for Uber. Not yet.

- if a driverless car gets confused or can't handle a situation on a city street, it can slow and stop completely and block traffic (and wait for emergency responders to intervene, or wait minutes/hours for remote human driver to override), which is "merely" an annoyance to locals. Whereas doing that on a freeway could injure or kill large numbers of people.

- "selected cities" seems to currently only be southwestern and southern US (SF, PHX, LA, AUS), warm and mostly clear skies, nothing regularly getting near a bad freeze or with bad rain/ snow/ slush/ storms/ gusts/ visibility/ unpredictable ice and skidding [0].

- only cities with well-maintained signage, roads, road markings which can be imaged reliably etc. This is an implicit limit on the locality's income and tax base.

- the recent Cruise secondary incident (near-fatality from a hit-and-run caused by a human-driven car) in SF and other incidents with pedestrians, cyclists and human drivers. "Just fix a few minor issues around the edges" will have a different meaning if you're a pedestrian, cyclist or transit user near a high-traffic street. This could easily become a political issue in some localities. Or maybe driverless will only be allowed in bus lanes or certain lanes of certain streets, or at certain times of day, or not near school pickup/dropoff, or through residential areas (like in 2011 when there were deaths of pedestrians in East Palo Alto residential areas due to drivers rat-running, exacerbated by the rush-hour to Facebook and on 101[1]).

[0]: https://waymo.com/faq/

[1]: https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2011/09/28/girl-7-killed-in-...

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#25

Post by bryant »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #10
duxup wrote: post #5

I can’t imagine three layoffs in a year is great for morale. Is there a reason they chose this sort of trickling layoffs approach?

A friend of mine convinced me this was the FB strategy to get people to resign instead of needing to fire them (a costly, legal.minefield). As a founder, the act of paralizying the company to effectively "bleed the fat off the bone" while cost effective, is insane. Because nothing gets done during those low morale months. I refused to believe this could be a valid strategy. Then I was countered with: this org is alre…

I mean, I imagine the risks from insider threats (selling or dumping secrets etc) would be heightened in this environment. Especially if two layoffs already happened.

They'd need to have a bulletproof insider threat program, one they're not laying anyone off from to mitigate the risk of their own team becoming a threat.

---

Tldr: once you've had two layoffs back to back, the risk isn't low morale, it's animosity.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#26

Post by TheCoelacanth »

blamazon wrote: post #23
duxup wrote: post #5

I can’t imagine three layoffs in a year is great for morale. Is there a reason they chose this sort of trickling layoffs approach?

Who needs morale? Fear and uncertainty are effective motivators.

Motivators to start updating your resume, maybe.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#28

Post by smcin »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #11
piffey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly with Curb in NYC have been more than happy with taxis. Wish it would be adopted in more cities.

What's Curb relative to Uber/Lyft or legacy taxis?

Seems to be the legacy taxi industry fighting back with somewhat ride-share-like pricing ("avoid surge pricing"), "professional drivers, more thorough background checks and vehicle inspections", "price shown in app will still be an estimate, not upfront pricing". Currently in NYC, CHI, DC, PHL, MIA, FLL, LA.

[0]: https://www.gocurb.com/

[1]: https://www.ridester.com/curb-app-work/

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#29

Post by meiraleal »

adrr wrote: post #27
meiraleal wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not before most big tech downsize a lot. There is something bigger going on.

They over hired during the pandemic.

If the problem was just that, the CEOs would be super happy. The bigger problem is that most big techs can't hold their absurdly huge revenue (with their crap services), much less grow it. At first they can cut costs to keep the profit high but then they are losing morale, revenue gets impacted more, brand gets affected. It is a downward spiral. It will only get worse when the fines start to come from every country they have operations.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#30

Post by _xivi »

rnk wrote: post #3

Is there a conclusion that the taxi service kind of works and just needs to fix a few minor issues around the edges fixed to work in limited city use in many cities, or is it so far away it's not even close?

> fix a few minor issues

It's always the last 20% that are demanding. You're left with tricky edge cases, legal battles, and operational challenges.

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