Following a federal investigation into a crash on October 2, California officials revoked the company’s permission to operate autonomous cars in the state unless a human safety driver was present.
Following a pedestrian incident in San Francisco last month, General Motors’ autonomous vehicle business, Cruise, has issued a recall affecting 950 of its robotaxis.
Prior to that, on October 2, a pedestrian was struck by a human driver in a separate vehicle, which caused the pedestrian to be pushed into the path of the Cruise robotaxis. As a result, the business had already suspended all of its autonomous operations.
As per the NHTSA filing and previous assertions from the business, the Cruise driverless car braked firmly prior to the collision and then attempted to stop at the side of the road. The car pulled the pedestrian forward by around twenty feet during this process.
The crash on October 2 set off a government investigation. Additionally, California regulators revoked Cruise’s company’s permission to operate autonomous vehicles in the state unless a human safety driver was present as a result of the crash and Cruise’s disclosures surrounding it.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, owns rival Waymo, which is still operating autonomous vehicles both inside and outside of California.
In its Nov. 7 petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Cruise states that it discovered software flaws in its automated driving system, particularly in relation to its “Collision Detection Subsystem,” after the crash.
The form of vCruise was scratched by the civil agent security division. A concussion may occur in some areas, in which case the passing AV may be prompted by the collision discovery subsystem to attempt to draw over, preferably by staying motionless, if a pullover is not requested as a post-collision response. This outcome might occur following a concussion involving a wanderer who was dropped to the ground in the AV’s route.
Cruise stated in a different blog post on Wednesday that in addition to carrying out the voluntary recall, the business is currently looking to appoint a Chief Safety Officer. According to a corporate statement, Louise Zhang, VP of Safety & Systems at Cruise, is acting as the business’s interim chief safety officer and is in charge of the security evaluations and inspections.
Cruise has started independent investigations into the events of October 2, depending on engineering consultants Exponent and Quinn Emanuel, a legal company well-known for representing Elon Musk and Tesla.
Cruise also momentarily halted production of its Cruise Origin driverless vans following the company’s loss of its California permits and public outcry over safety concerns. Cruise and General Motors intended to build a small number of these self-driving shuttles in Detroit. The 2020 Origin, which can accommodate six people, lacks an acceleration pedal and a steering wheel.
According to GM’s announcement last month, the firm lost around $1.9 billion on Cruise between January and September of this year, with $732 million coming from the third quarter alone.