Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Waymo Layoffs

sfstandard.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 130 posts

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#41

Post by fbdab103 »

datadrivenangel wrote: post #21
fbdab103 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Sorry, implied inflection on the internet. I expect productivity will be astoundingly low.

The entire company has been told they could lose their job anytime in the next 14 months. People with options will start looking to leave, those without alternatives will live in fear.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#42

Post by andsoitis »

janalsncm wrote: post #34
foxandmouse wrote: post #13

To anyone following this space, this was inevitable. Also, What is going on at google these days, I don't see them having a competitive advantage in any industry after this decade..

In some sense, everything that has happened was inevitable. We colloquially speak of the “possible but didn’t happen” as if it’s very different from and the “impossible” but in fact those things which didn’t happen were impossible in retrospect. Maybe there is only the “actual”.

interesting framing for evaluating claims of free will

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#43

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

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…

> 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).

It's a major pet peeve of mine when people's conspiracy theories don't even make sense even if you accept the theory at face value:

1. If you want to fire people for performance or other reasons, it's true that a great time to do it is during layoffs - there doesn't need to be any rationale given, and there is nothing to sue over when a hundred other people are also being let go for non-performance reasons. So if you're already having layoffs, why again are you hoping for some people to resign??

2. Why on Earth does your friend think having multiple rounds of layoffs will convince poor performers to resign? That doesn't make any sense. If anything, it's usually the crappiest people who are OK stocking around when a company becomes paralyzed during layoffs season - it's top performers who see the writing on the wall and go elsewhere.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#44

Post by shiroiuma »

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…

>Which is to say, assuming you are not actively looking for the exit door, why even bother to do your job?

There's certainly no incentive to "go the extra mile" and be a high performer.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#46

Post by gghffguhvc »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #12
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?

Impression I get is that the fundamentals work okay -- which is a huge accomplishment in and of itself -- but there are still enough edge cases that scaling up is hard, and opening up a new city takes substantial effort. Videos that show up on the r/self drivingcars subredddit show increasing fluency/confidence in driving from Waymo. But there's always going to be socially weird situations in cities where the answer…

I’ve taken 60+ Waymo trips in SF and much prefer them over Uber. There are rough edges but I love playing music I like, the smooth and consistent driving, the same model car each time. I’m an early adopter kind of person and can live with the occasional “why pick me up over there?” Like stuff.

I’m not affiliated with Waymo. Just someone who got early access by joining the waitlist.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#47

Post by greesil »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #26
blamazon wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who needs morale? Fear and uncertainty are effective motivators.

Motivators to start updating your resume, maybe.

But if you're in the MANGAsphere, and they're all doing layoffs, the fear is a big motivator because it's not trivial for you to just pick up another job that pays as well.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#48

Post by keyle »

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…

It's a dumb strategy because the talent that can get a job anywhere will be the first to jump ship, and they're the ones you want to retain.

Meanwhile the talent that can't get a job elsewhere easily will be hanging on for a payout.

You basically alienate your teams, throw timelines off anyway and frankly it's a dick move.

I think if this is the case, it's because it's mismanaged to the point that no one knows who should go, so you put the feelers out as opposed to restructure solidly going forward.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#49

Post by skipkey »

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…

> Which is to say, assuming you are not actively looking for the exit door, why even bother to do your job

There’s one reason - from experience, it’s a lot easier to find a job if you are currently employed. So if you think you will likely be a target in round 2 or 3, the rational thing to do is to try to stay employed as long as possible and switch jobs quickly. Also, the severance tends to get worse with each round. I saw one job where round one got 3 months severance plus a week per year, with insurance, round 2 got a month, and round 3 got 2 weeks. I found new employment between rounds 2 and 3.

It seems like there are quite a few people here who have never experienced a tight labor market.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#50

Post by TradingPlaces »

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?

It definitely works. I was in one just yesterday for over a half hour and it’s a pretty smooth thing, and in some ways better than a human driver (e.g., always yields to pedestrians entering a crosswalk, never exceeds speed limit,etc.)

But both Waymo and Cruise lose money on every ride. All the sensors and on-board compute are expensive, and also the R&D, and the 3D maps. Both services rely on detailed 3D maps of the areas they service, and are geofenced to that.

So right now, it does not scale yet until they can bring down the costs, and/or reduce reliance on those maps, which take a long time to make.

Videos of my rides: https://youtu.be/q-l23cMs1Fs?si=R1hjPQokqAMCff_T https://youtu.be/FZTWxDe1i6g?si=mGbcixGTKCQchnVv

Post reply on HN