General Motors' (GM's) autonomous car subsidiary, Cruise, has initiated layoffs for an undisclosed number of contingent workers who are responsible for supporting its driverless fleet operations, including cleaning, charging, maintenance, and customer support.

The layoffs were announced as a result of pausing driverless operations and a shift toward supervised driving for the time being.

Analyst QuickTake: The layoffs follow regulatory setbacks, including the suspension of Cruise's driverless vehicle permit in San Francisco after an incident in which a pedestrian was dragged alongside a San Francisco street in early October. In response to the incident, Cruise withdrew all robotaxis from markets across the US and issued a recall for 950 vehicles to update software.