The California Department of Motor Vehicles said Tuesday it was immediately suspending the permits that allowed the tech startup Cruise to operate driverless cars, halting the operations of one of the two companies that has been operating a commercial robotaxi fleet in the state.
The DMV said in an emailed statement that the suspension would take effect immediately and that it was acting to protect public safety. Cruise vehicles have been involved in a series of incidents that sparked criticism from elected officials and members of the public, especially in San Francisco.
“The California DMV today notified Cruise that the department is suspending Cruise’s autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permits, effective immediately,” the department said in a statement.
Cruise said in an emailed statement Tuesday that it was pausing operations and evaluating potential improvements, such as how it should handle events like an incident earlier this month when one of its cars drove over a pedestrian who had just been hit by a human driver.
“Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives,” Cruise said.
In the incident this month, the human driver of another vehicle struck a pedestrian in San Francisco at night, tossing the pedestrian into the path of a Cruise self-driving car that then drove over her, according to San Francisco police. Police said at the time that they were investigating the factors that led to the collision and they did not immediately say who they believed was at fault.
Cruise said Tuesday that although its vehicle in that incident “braked aggressively before impact and because it detected a collision,” it then tried to pull over to avoid further safety issues and in the process pulled the pedestrian forward.
“Our thoughts continue to be with the victim as we hope for a rapid and complete recovery,” Cruise said. “Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV’s response to this kind of extremely rare event.”
Cruise was founded in San Francisco in 2013 as one of a generation of startups dedicated to making driverless technology a reality. It’s now majority-owned by General Motors.
Cruise vehicles have also at times snarled traffic, as when nearly a dozen of them had difficulty navigating San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood in August because of what the company said were wireless connectivity issues. At other times, they have blocked city buses or delayed emergency vehicles, city officials have said.
Waymo, the other company with a permit for a driverless taxi fleet, was not affected by the suspension. Waymo shares a parent company with Google.
Supporters of the technology argue that despite the errors, Cruise and Waymo are still a safer alternative to human drivers. Neither company has been found to be at fault in a death, while San Francisco and many other cities have struggled to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries caused by humans.
The DMV said there was no set time for how long the Cruise suspension would last, and that it had provided Cruise with “the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction.”
Cruise may still test its technology with a safety driver present in the car, the DMV said.
Cruise has been an expensive operative for its owners including General Motors. As of earlier this year, the company was losing nearly $7 million a day, according to GM’s earnings report.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
