Cruise Halts All Self-Driving Taxi Operations to 'Rebuild Public Trust'
GM-owned Cruise is halting all self-driving car operations after California’s DMV suspended the company’s state permit to operate the vehicles, citing them as a risk to public safety.
"The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust," Cruise says.
In addition to San Francisco, the company has also been testing the vehicles in in Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, while eyeing an expansion in other cities.
“We have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust,” Cruise said in a statement on Twitter/X.
California’s DMV suspended the company’s permit after a Cruise vehicle ran over a San Francisco pedestrian who'd been hit by another vehicle and flung into the path of the Cruise car.
On Tuesday, California’s DMV alleged that Cruise vehicles don't just pose a public hazard, but that the company withheld information during the investigation and misrepresented the safety of its autonomous vehicles.
According to the DMV’s suspension order, the company showed the department video footage from the accident. However, “footage of the subsequent movement of the AV to perform a pullover maneuver was not shown to the department and Cruise did not disclose that any additional movement of the vehicle had occurred after the initial stop of the vehicle,” it said.
DMV officials learned of the additional footage from a separate agency. Those clips show the Cruise vehicle attempted a “pullover maneuver while the pedestrian was underneath the vehicle.”
“The AV traveled approximately 20 feet and reached a speed of 7mph before
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