Australian Driverless Ai Baraja Cuts 75% Of Workforce

February 8, 2023

Australian Driverless Ai Baraja Cuts 75% Of Workforce

Baraja is an Australian AI company that provides cutting-edge technology for autonomous vehicles and other advanced mobility applications. Their primary product is a high-performance LiDAR system which leverages cutting-edge optical design and custom silicon technology to deliver high-resolution 3D sensing at a lower cost and form factor than traditional LiDAR systems.

Now apparently despite raising funds at a $300m valuation the firm needs to fire three quarters of their staff to reduce expenses.

The driverless universe has hit quite a bit of turbulence recently with Argo Ai going down just a few months ago. “In coordination with our shareholders, the decision has been made that Argo AI will not continue on its mission as a company. Many of the employees will receive an opportunity to continue work on automated driving technology with either Ford or Volkswagen, while employment for others will unfortunately come to an end.” Argo AI was an American Ai autonomous vehicle company. They developed and integrated self-driving systems, including software, hardware, and data solutions, to enable vehicles to safely operate without a human driver. Similar to Baraja, except with about 10x the funding and manpower. Argo AI had partnerships with leading automakers, including Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Company.

Ford and VW absorbed the assets of Argo Ai after its shutdown.

Now Baraja is hoping to avoid a similar fate to Argo Ai by becoming leaner and avoiding burdensome research and development expenses that the company simply cannot afford.

In time the market hopefully will become hot again and funding will emerge, but can Baraja weather the storm until then? That is the hope in the mass layoffs.

Main Sequence Ventures, Blackbird Ventures and Swedish company Veoneer are all financial backers of Baraja.