On other forums it seems like it splits into two group. One group says that it depends on the team and that they love their current team. And the other group is how working for Cruise is the worst decision they've made in their life.

My curiosity is with, how does a company totally change their culture and do a complete 180%? From having workers completely hating their current company to completely not seeing themselves in moving to a different company. As some companies used to have employees mentioning it is the worst tech company in the bay area to one of the best in the bay area

I'm not sure this makes Cruise particularly unique.

There are a lot of FAANG and ex-FAANG employees on this board, and you can find lots of people who love their job and feel like they are well-treated, compensated and respected and doing a meaningful impactful job, and there are plenty who felt ignored, underpaid and disrespected while working as a cog in an machine designed to sell ads.

I think you'll find most FAANG developers feel quite well paid. But cog in a machine definitely describes many of the complaints.

I would recommend reading the Open Organization by Jim Whitehurst to get example of how process affects employee motivation.