Cruise said Thursday evening that it has suspended all driverless operations, a move that comes just two days after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s deployment and driverless testing permits, effectively ending its operations of robotaxi in the state.
The action means driverless operations in Austin, Houston and Phoenix, where the company charged for rides, have ended. Cruise also ended its driverless operations in Miami, where just yesterday the company had quietly launched, according to sources familiar with the company’s operations.
Cruise said in a post on social media siteprocesses, systems and tools and think about how we can operate better in a way that earns public trust. THE GM’s autonomous driving subsidiary said it was taking steps to restore public confidence and added that it was not linked to any new incidents on the road.
Cruise said it will continue supervised autonomous vehicle operations, meaning a human safety operator will be behind the wheel.
“We believe this is the right thing to do at a time when we need to be extremely vigilant about risk, relentlessly focused on safety and taking steps to restore public trust,” the company said .
Cruise’s decision marks an about-face in internal communications with his employees during an all-hands meeting held Wednesday afternoon, according to sources. At that meeting, co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt told staff that the company had not discontinued operations anywhere other than California and gave no indication that it intended to do so. Instead, Vogt told employees the company was re-evaluating how it discloses information to regulators to ensure it is clearly communicated, according to sources who heard the call.
The California DMV suspended Cruise’s licenses on October 23 about three weeks after an incident that left a pedestrian, who had been struck by a vehicle driven by a human who fled the scene, pinned under a Cruise robotaxi. The Cruise vehicle was in the adjacent lane. DMV was already investigating Cruise and had forced the company to reduce its fleet by 50% following an August collision with an emergency vehicle.
The DMV said in its suspension order that it took this action after learning that Cruise had withheld video footage from its investigation into the Oct. 2 event. DMV said Cruise showed it video Footage of the accident captured by the VA’s onboard cameras, which ended with the robotaxi initially stopping following sudden braking. The agency said it later learned there was additional footage showing the VA then attempting to put on a sweatshirt. maneuver while the pedestrian was under the vehicle. The AV traveled about 20 feet and reached a speed of 7 miles per hour before coming to a complete and permanent stop, the DMV said.
Cruise repeatedly insisted he showed the DMV the entire footage, but admitted it might have been better to provide a detailed explanation of what happened. The DMV told TechCrunch it stands by its assessment.
Tech
