Sydney self-driving tech startup Baraja has laid off about 75% of its workforce.
The job cuts come just one month after the business received an undisclosed-level investment from Swedish automotive safety firm Veoneer, Baraja CEO and co-founder Federico Collarte said the business “validates its market traction”. said.
Baraja was founded in 2015 by Collarte and Cibby Pulikkaseril to solve the problems faced by existing LiDAR (light detection and ranging) systems used to give vision to self-driving cars.
Our headquarters are located in the industrial district of Ryde, north of Sydney.
The startup previously raised over $90 million, including $45 million (US$32 million) in a 2019 Series A backed by Sequoia China, Blackbird Ventures, and CSIRO’s VC fund Main Sequence, with a 2021 has raised another $40 million led by Blackbird. , at a $300 million valuation. Blackbird started his Baraja seed round in 2016.
Japan’s Hitachi Construction Machinery is also a major strategic backer and user of this technology. Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals mining business as a client.
But the full self-driving (FSD) project will hit a dismal point in 2022, with the Ford- and VW-backed Argo AI project being the most prominent casualty. Ford put more than his US$1 billion into the project in his five years, announced it would close in October.costing its balance sheet $2.7 billion in the process.
Tesla’s Fully Self-Driving (FSD) Beta v11 software update be late again for the weekend The November 2022 release deadline has already passed. The esla FSD Beta v11 is an exciting and scary step as it is supposed to merge Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot highway stacks.
last month Former Tesla engineer admits company’s 2016 tech demonstration was faked.
The U.S. Department of Justice Currently investigating Tesla technology
And a major critic and even rival to Tesla’s FSD system. Spent $600,000 on Super Bowl ads calling for technology ban.
Baraja uses different technology than Tesla systems, but amid strong headwinds and negative sentiment towards autonomous driving, CEO Federico Collarte said he had little choice but to scale back the business.
“As the industry outlook changes, baraja is scaling back its legacy offerings to focus on the next generation of LiDAR. Reorganized engineering teams in Australia and the United States to deliver Spectrum HD 2025, a mass-produced, low-cost automotive product built on Spectrum-Scan with breakthrough Doppler capabilities. ”
“We do not take this decision lightly and are committed to providing support and assistance to those affected by these changes. We are dedicated to providing.”
The company has not confirmed the level of job cuts, but more than 160 people worked at Baraja, so if the 75% figure is accurate, only 40 of the 120 jobs lost will remain. .