GM’s Cruise Automation Division To Double Its Workforce

General Motors’ Cruise Automation division is ramping up its efforts and will double its headcount over the coming nine months.

While speaking with Reuters, Cruise spokesman Ray Wert said the company will hire roughly 1,000 employees this year, the majority of whom will be engineers.

In addition to announcing an expansion of its workforce, Cruise Automation has confirmed that its human resources division will be led by Dropbox’s Arden Hoffman. The self-driving company will also triple its office space in San Francisco.

General Motors acquired Cruise for $581 million in cash in 2016 when it was just a 50-person firm. Cruise now has over 1,000 staff and, at the most recent estimates, was valued at about $14.6 billion. The company has attracted a number of huge investments since becoming part of the GM family and in May 2018, SoftBank Vision Fund announced that it was investing $2.25 billion in Cruise Automation.

Since being purchased by GM, Cruise has been testing its autonomous driving technologies across a fleet of Chevrolet Bolt EVs. However, GM and Honda revealed in October last year that they will collaborate on a purpose-built autonomous vehicle, with Honda investing $2.75 billion in Cruise as part of this plan.

Recently discussing the vehicle, Cruise chief executive Kyle Vogt suggested it could have a ground-breaking design: “Shouldn’t the car of the future have giant TV screens, a mini bar, and lay-flat seats? Maybe it should…”, he said.