California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has suspended Cruise’s licence to deploy driverless vehicles on the streets of San Francisco due to safety concerns.
The company lost its licence to operate its robotaxis in the city after being accused of “misrepresenting” the safety of the technology and withholding information from regulators.
The safety of Cruise’s driverless taxis came into question earlier this month, following an accident in which one of its cars rolled over a woman who had been hit by a human driver and thrown into the road.
The Cruise car braked but only came to a stop once it was on top of her. The company said the vehicle “detected a collision” and “attempted to pull over to avoid causing further road safety issues, pulling the individual forward approximately 20 feet”.
The woman survived but suffered severe injuries.
The accident prompted the DMV to reassess the safety of the technology. During the investigation, the DMV claims Cruise did not initially disclose all video footage of the accident and “misrepresented any information related to the safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles”.
As a result, the DMV suspended the company’s license to operate without drivers indefinitely.
“Based upon the performance of the vehicles, the department determines the manufacturer’s vehicles are not safe for the public’s operation,” the DMV said, citing “an unreasonable risk to public safety”.
Cruise said it was complying with the order but denied the claims it had withheld information, stating that the company provided regulators with a video of the incident when requested.
“Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV’s response to this kind of extremely rare event,” said a Cruise spokesperson. “Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives.”
Despite the suspension, Cruise is still allowed to operate its robotaxis with a safety driver present, for both free or during paid rides.
Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise have only been allowed since August to operate their autonomous taxi service at any time of the day throughout San Francisco.
Over the past year, Cruise has been testing 300 robotaxis in the streets of the city. The service was free during the day and paid at night, when only 100 robotaxis were allowed to operate. Meanwhile, Waymo’s 100 autonomous vehicles have been providing free rides to volunteers and employees throughout the city.
In April, the UK became the first European country to allow drivers to take their hands off car steering wheels on public roads after the Department for Transport gave car manufacturer Ford permission to activate its BlueCruise system on motorways.
The announcement was in line with the government’s ambition to ensure self-driving cars hit UK roads by 2025 and “revolutionise public transport and passenger travel”.
