California Says Cruise Lied About Robotaxi Crash Footage, Suspends Operations

Table Of Content

• Cruise responds to questions about missing portion of video
• Poet Victoria Chang touches on feminism, grief and art at L.A. Times Festival of Books
• Used Vehicle Dealers & Sales Taxes
• Why Cruise's driverless car permits were just suspended by the California DMV
• A ‘cold-blooded killer’ called Smiley haunted L.A. for 14 years. How he finally faced justice
• Indefinite ban due to 'public safety'
• DMV documents reveal reasons behind suspension

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Cruise responds to questions about missing portion of video

Perhaps Cruise did those tests and they did not reveal these problems—no simulation is perfect—but if so, they should examine why that was. Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that would require AV companies to only use electric vehicles starting in 2030. Spokesperson Navideh Forghani said Cruise representatives met with the DMV on Oct. 3, "in which we showed them the complete video multiple times. They later requested a copy of the complete video, which we provided to them."

Poet Victoria Chang touches on feminism, grief and art at L.A. Times Festival of Books

“San Francisco has long held that Cruise vehicles were not ready for prime time and the state should have never allowed their unlimited deployment in the first place,” he added. “Shortly after the incident, our team proactively shared information with the California DMV, CPUC, and NHTSA, including the full video,” Forghani continued. This suspension comes one week after the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration said it was investigating the company following two incident reports of injuring pedestrians. However, the DMV in its Order of Suspension said Cruise failed to hand over video that showed what the car did after the initial stop. According to the letter, Cruise did not submit the entirety of the footage when the California Highway Patrol and DMV opened their investigation on October 3. The latter half was only released after the DMV learned from another government agency that the Cruise AV continued to drive after initially stopping.

Used Vehicle Dealers & Sales Taxes

California DMV cuts Cruise's fleet after S.F. crashes involving its driverless cars - San Francisco Chronicle

California DMV cuts Cruise's fleet after S.F. crashes involving its driverless cars.

Posted: Sat, 19 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

This month, the company said it would modify its response times to detect emergency vehicles earlier. In a brief statement, the DMV added that it had informed the General Motors subsidiary what steps it needed “to apply to reinstate its suspended permits,” but did not explain what those precisely entail. 13 CCR §228.20 (b) (3) - The manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.

California and Nevada are the only two states where the company can legally sell the technology to consumers. The two state DMVs gave Mercedes approval to begin selling the cars last year—Nevada in January, and California in June. Mercedes announced in September its plans to begin sales, but this is the first news of the cars actually reaching consumers. The next time you’re traveling on the interstate and see a fellow driver whose hands are full with everything but the wheel—scrolling TikTok, applying mascara, eating breakfast—don’t panic. It’s all legal in certain states, as long as they’re in a new Mercedes with autonomous driving technology.

She said operations in other regions would not be affected by the California suspension. The suspension does not affect Cruise’s permit for testing its autonomous vehicles with a safety driver behind the wheel, according to the DMV. Cruise officials, in a statement to The Times, denied that they did not share all of their video with investigators. The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday suspended Cruise's deployment and testing permits for its autonomous vehicles, effective immediately. San Francisco officials, including transit, police, and fire departments, have expressed serious concerns about driverless vehicles intruding on emergency scenes, blocking intersections, and impeding other traffic.

A ‘cold-blooded killer’ called Smiley haunted L.A. for 14 years. How he finally faced justice

This is a challenge, because vehicles don’t have sensors under the car, and any visual sensors there would quickly get dirty. Ultrasonic sensors could help detect this, but otherwise the detection must come from implied clues, such as a change in the driving characteristics, the bumps of driving over something (or someone) and the disappearance of anything under the car without its reappearance. Side LIDAR can detect anything not completely under the vehicle but that can’t be depended on. With some irony, I wrote about this problem just a few days before this incident as well. Obviously it’s a terrible scenario to be prevented, but it’s also in the class of special situation where the behavior is very non-human and in a frightening way.

California DMV Shuts Down Cruise Robotaxis Due To Dragging Of Pedestrian - Forbes

California DMV Shuts Down Cruise Robotaxis Due To Dragging Of Pedestrian.

Posted: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Vice Motherboard reported yesterday that Cruise’s email summary of the accident said the car “hard-braked but was unable to stop” before hitting a pedestrian. The company had planned to launch a commercial robotaxi service in San Francisco in 2019 but failed to do so, and it has yet to publicly commit to a new date. San Francisco in August became the first city in the world to let two self-driving taxi companies – Cruise and Waymo – offer paid rides 24 hours a day. The decision comes after a contentious vote by the California Public Utilities Commission in August named Cruise as one of two self-driving taxi companies approved to offer paid rides 24/7 in San Francisco. “Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV’s response to this kind of extremely rare event,” she said.

DMV documents reveal reasons behind suspension

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. And a suspension could seriously impact the company’s ability to scale to new markets. Cruise has been under pressure from local authorities to do a better job of interacting with first responders and pedestrians.

The Department added, "the manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles," describing Cruise's AVs as "not safe for the public's operation." "The behavior of the vehicle raises concerns that vehicles operated under Cruise's driverless testing permit also lack the ability to respond in a safe and appropriate manner during incidents involving a pedestrian," the DMV's suspension order reads. "Until the department can make a determination regarding the safe operating of the vehicles, the continued operating of Cruises' driverless test vehicles on public roads poses an unreasonable risk to the public." California is ground zero for AV testing in the US, with over 50 companies licensed to operate autonomous vehicles for testing purposes in the state. A handful of companies hold permits to test fully driverless vehicles, without safety drivers behind the steering wheel. And an even smaller number have been approved to pick up and drop off passengers as part of a commercial pilot service.

Updated California's Department of Motor Vehicles has rescinded GM-owned Cruise's right to roam the streets with its self-driving cars, citing public safety and accusing the biz of withholding information. The Investigative Unit reached out to Cruise to explain why its own videos and descriptions of the incident released to reporters failed to include the "pullover maneuver," which the DMV now says "may have caused further injury to the pedestrian." Cruise vehicles are approved to operate between 10PM and 6AM at a maximum speed of 30mph and can even drive in “light rain and fog.” Waymo vehicles can operate on public roads in parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties at a maximum speed of 65mph. Waymo and Cruise, two of the leading autonomous vehicle companies in the US, received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to offer rides to passengers in their robotaxis. The DMV says Cruise representatives initially did not disclose or show footage of the vehicle's pullover maneuver after its initial stop, which "increased the risk of and may have caused, further injury to the pedestrian."

The DMV, which regulates autonomous vehicle testing and deployments in the state, said Cruise must meet a number of steps to reinstate its suspended permits, which the agency will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction. This decision does not impact the company’s permit for testing with a safety driver, the DMV added. Citing public safety concerns about Cruise‘s robotaxi line operating in San Francisco, California DMV officials announced Tuesday that the agency had suspended permits for the driverless cars deployed by General Motors’ autonomous vehicle subsidiary. Public safety remains the California DMV’s top priority, and the department’s autonomous vehicle regulations provide a framework to facilitate the safe testing and deployment of this technology on California public roads. When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits.

13 CCR §228.20 (b) (6) - Based upon the performance of the vehicles, the Department determines the manufacturer's vehicles are not safe for the public's operation. In time they should set standards on all of these factors, and more, to decide what sort of action to take. NHTSA’s safety recall system, for example, is a slow process, though in the future it’s not impossible that they could decide there is a safety problem with a car so severe that all the cars should be remotely disabled. In the past, remote shutdown wasn’t even possible, but there are a few car models today where it is. Cruise then halted robotaxi operation, later expanded the pause to include supervised and manually-driven Cruise trips for safety review.

The DMV said in its order of suspension that the Cruise automobile came to a complete stop but "subsequently attempted to perform a pullover maneuver while the pedestrian was underneath the vehicle." "What we have seen is that Cruise has not done such safety stand downs voluntarily," Koopman told CNBC. "Rather CA DMV has forced them do safety stand downs — once after the fire truck crash with a reduction in the size of the operational fleet, and now after this pedestrian crash." "Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV's response to this kind of extremely rare event," the company went on to say. Cruise said the company had shared information with the DMV, CPUC and NHTSA, including video. City officials criticized the move and asked the CPUC to pause the authorization in favor of an incremental approach, amid reports of the vehicles making wrong turns, stalling in the middle of the road and interfering with first responders.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has spent the past few months reporting on safety concerns surrounding autonomous vehicles and back in August aired an in-depth report delving into the industry's record of crashes across the state. Regulations in California require driverless car companies to self-report each collision involving an autonomous vehicle. Transportation documents, obtained by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit through a public records request, showed autonomous cars have been in involved in at least 532 collisions since June 2018. Of those crashes, 42 were truly driverless – with no safety driver inside the vehicle. Currently, 60 companies have an active permit to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver. "When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits. There is no set time for a suspension," the DMV continued, adding that it has provided Cruise with a path back to approval.

Meanwhile, robotaxis from Alphabet’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise operate at level 4, meaning cars drive autonomously in most conditions without human interference. But these companies currently don’t sell vehicles to consumers, and Cruise recently halted its service after California’s DMV suspended its license due to an incident in which a car dragged a pedestrian under its carriage for 20 feet. "Public safety remains the California DMV's top priority, and the department's autonomous vehicle regulations provide a framework to facilitate the safe testing and deployment of this technology on California public roads," the DMV said in a statement. If a large fleet with good overall statistical safety is shut down, the switch to human driving will probably harm many more people than are protected. The DMV’s order of suspension, which TechCrunch has viewed, states that Cruise withheld video footage from an ongoing investigation, prompting the agency to suspend its permit. The DMV said it met with Cruise representatives on October 3, one day after an incident that left a pedestrian, who had initially been hit by a human-driven car, stuck under a Cruise robotaxi.