Current:Home > MarketsCruise, GM’s robotaxi service, suspends all driverless operations nationwide-LoTradeCoin
Cruise, GM’s robotaxi service, suspends all driverless operations nationwide
View Date:2024-12-23 16:14:31
NEW YORK (AP) — Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit owned by General Motors, is suspending driverless operations nationwide days after regulators in California found that its driverless cars posed a danger to public safety.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the license for Cruise, which recently began transporting passengers throughout San Francisco, this week.
Cruise is also being investigated by U.S. regulators after receiving reports of potential risks to pedestrians and passengers.
“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 wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday night.
The choice to suspend its driverless services isn’t related to any new on-road incidents, Cruise added. Human-supervised operations of Cruise’s autonomous vehicles, or AVs, will continue — including under California’s indefinite suspension.
General Motors Co., which has ambitious goals for Cruise, has taken a significant blow this week. The Detroit automaker had been expecting annual revenue of $1 billion from Cruise by 2025 — a big jump from the $106 million in revenue last year when the company lost nearly $2 billion.
Cruise has also tested a robotaxi service in Los Angeles, as well as cities like Phoenix and Austin.
While the California Department of Motor Vehicles’ didn’t elaborate on specific reasons for its suspension of Cruise’s license this week, the Tuesday revocation followed a series of incidents that heightened concerns about the hazards and inconveniences caused by Cruise’s robotaxis.
Earlier this month a Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been hit by another vehicle driven by a human. The pedestrian became pinned under a tire of the Cruise vehicle after it came to a stop. In a statement, Cruise said it was continuing to cooperate with state and federal regulators investigating the Oct. 2 accident — and that its engineers are working on way for its robotaxis to improve their response “to this kind of extremely rare event.”
Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it was investigating Cruise’s autonomous vehicle division after receiving reports of incidents where vehicles may not have used proper caution around pedestrians in roadways, including crosswalks.
The NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation said it received two reports involving pedestrian injuries from Cruise vehicles. It also identified two additional incidents from videos posted to public websites, noting that the total number is unknown.
In December of last year, the NHSTA opened a separate probe into reports of Cruise’s robotaxis that stopped too quickly or unexpectedly quit moving, potentially stranding passengers. Three rear-end collisions that reportedly took place after Cruise AVs braked hard kicked off the investigation.
According to an Oct. 20 letter that was made public Thursday, since beginning this probe the NHSTA has received five other reports of Cruise AVs unexpectedly breaking with no obstacles ahead. Each case involved AVs operating without human supervision and resulted in rear-end collisions.
“We welcome NHTSA’s questions related to our safety record and operations,” Cruise spokesperson Hannah Lindow said in a statement sent to The Associated Press Friday. “We have cooperated with each of their requests to date as part of the ongoing investigation process and will continue doing so.”
Cruise has previously maintained that its record of driverless miles have outperformed comparable human drivers in terms of safety, notably crash rates.
veryGood! (44)
Related
- Gisele Bündchen Makes First Major Appearance Since Pregnancy
- In Alaska’s North, Covid-19 Has Not Stopped the Trump Administration’s Quest to Drill for Oil
- Fortnite maker Epic Games will pay $520 million to settle privacy and deception cases
- Need an apartment? Prepare to fight it out with many other renters
- Larry Hobbs, who guided AP’s coverage of Florida news for decades, has died at 83
- Passenger says he made bomb threat on flight to escape cartel members waiting to torture and kill him in Seattle, documents say
- Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor Make Rare Red Carpet Appearance With 21-Year-Old Daughter Ella
- Kim and Khloe Kardashian Take Barbie Girls Chicago, True, Stormi and Dream on Fantastic Outing
- Cavaliers' Darius Garland rediscovers joy for basketball under new coach
- We battle Planet Money for indicator of the year
Ranking
- The Daily Money: Mattel's 'Wicked' mistake
- Get a $64 Lululemon Tank for $19, $64 Shorts for $29, $119 Pants for $59 and More Mind-Blowing Finds
- U.S. opens new immigration path for Central Americans and Colombians to discourage border crossings
- Interest rates up, but not on your savings account
- Seattle man faces 5 assault charges in random sidewalk stabbings
- Connecticut Passed an Environmental Justice Law 12 Years Ago, but Not That Much Has Changed
- A Chick-fil-A location is fined for giving workers meals instead of money
- After the Fukushima disaster, Japan swore to phase out nuclear power. But not anymore
Recommendation
-
Powerball winning numbers for Nov. 13 drawing: Jackpot rises to $113 million
-
Trump special counsel investigations cost over $9 million in first five months
-
Contact lens maker faces lawsuit after woman said the product resulted in her losing an eye
-
Warming Trends: Asian Carp Hate ‘80s Rock, Beekeeping to Restore a Mountain Top and a Lot of Reasons to Go Vegan
-
Why the US celebrates Veterans Day and how the holiday has changed over time
-
For the Ohio River Valley, an Ethane Storage Facility in Texas Is Either a Model or a Cautionary Tale
-
U.S. opens new immigration path for Central Americans and Colombians to discourage border crossings
-
A Federal Court Delivers a Victory for Sioux Tribe, Another Blow for the Dakota Access Pipeline