San Francisco, Oct 18 (IANS): Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company Waymo has laid off more employees, for the third time this year.

The fresh layoffs are part of an internal reorganisation process, a company spokesperson told The San Francisco Standard, without revealing the exact number of affected employees.

“A small number of Waymo teams recently made adjustments to their teams as part of normal course of business,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier this year, Alphabet laid off dozens of Waymo employees as part of wide-scale layoffs across the company.

In March, Waymo sacked more than 200 employees in its second round of layoffs.

The company fired 8 per cent, or 209 employees, of its total workforce.

A Waymo spokesperson said that the layoffs, mostly in engineering roles, are part of a "broader organisational restructure that follows a fiscally disciplined approach".

Waymo employed around 2,500 employees at the start of the year, according to reports.

In August, Waymo was granted permission by state regulators to expand in San Francisco.

The company received a permit for its driver-less pilot programme from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which allows autonomous vehicle (AV) companies to take passengers in test AVs without a driver.

Waymo also announced plans to start testing fully driverless vehicles in Los Angeles.

Regulators in the US state of California have given the green signal to autonomous car companies Cruise and Waymo to run commercial robotaxi services across San Francisco 24/7.