General Motors Co’s driverless taxi unit Cruise has decided to ground its entire fleet following the suspension of its license by California. The company had plans to expand to various cities in the US and Japan, but this setback has put a halt to their ambitions.
The Department of Motor Vehicles in California suspended Cruise’s operation of driverless cars in the state on October 24. The company was accused of withholding crucial video footage of an accident involving a pedestrian in San Francisco.
Cruise has taken the decision to rebuild public trust, stating, “The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust. In that spirit, we have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets,” on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also initiated an investigation into Cruise. The company has been expanding to other cities including Austin and Phoenix.
In August, Cruise and Alphabet Inc’s Waymo were granted permission by the California Public Utilities Commission to charge riders fares for driverless rides in San Francisco. However, the expansion of Cruise’s operations was marred by a number of high-profile incidents, including one where a person was hit by another car and ended up in front of a Cruise taxi.
The vehicle braked hard but ran over the pedestrian. It then attempted to pull over as a safety maneuver but continued driving for 20 feet at a speed of up to seven miles per hour with the pedestrian still underneath. The Department of Motor Vehicles stated that this may have caused further injury.
The Department of Motor Vehicles claims that Cruise did not provide video footage of the attempted pullover maneuver when sharing the accident footage with officials. The agency only found out about the vehicle’s subsequent movement through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and then requested additional footage from Cruise. The DMV argues that Cruise’s omission hampers their ability to evaluate the safety of the autonomous vehicles.
Cruise has disputed the DMV’s characterization and insisted that they provided the agency with the entire video.
Currently, Cruise has 400 cars operating in San Francisco and an additional 200 in Austin, Houston, and Phoenix. While all autonomous operations have now ceased, the company will continue to run cars with safety drivers.
Cruise is also conducting developmental work in 11 other cities to expand its services in the future. How the company handles this crisis will have implications for all autonomous operators. Reilly Brennan, general partner at Trucks Venture Capital, which invests in transportation technology, stated that incidents like these will be problematic for other companies like Alphabet Inc’s Waymo.
Regarding the situation, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles did not respond to inquiries after regular business hours.
Cruise is also facing financial challenges, having spent US$1.4bil (RM6.68bil) this year. Despite this, CEO Mary Barra stated in GM’s earnings call that the company still believes in AV (autonomous vehicle) technology and plans to deploy it in Tokyo with Honda Motor Co in 2026.
A spokesperson for Honda stated that Cruise’s suspension in the US does not currently impact their plans.
“We know from the data that Cruise AVs are involved in far fewer collisions than human drivers,” said Barra during the call with analysts.
