Cruise suspends all driverless taxi operations to "rebuild public trust"

Cruise said late Thursday it had suspended all public operations of its self-driving cars, a decision that came two days after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's deployment and driverless testing licenses, effectively ending the company's self-driving taxi operations throughout the state.

The action means the company's self-driving operations in Austin, Houston and Phoenix have also been suspended, where self-driving operations are for a fee. The company also ended its self-driving operations in Miami, where it quietly launched just yesterday, according to sources familiar with Cruise's activities.

Cruise posted on social networking site GM's self-driving unit said it took the action to rebuild public trust, adding that it was not related to any new road accidents.

Cruise said it will continue supervised self-driving vehicle operations, meaning human safety operators will continue to sit behind the wheel.

"We believe this is the right thing to do during a time when we need to be extra vigilant about risk, relentlessly focus on safety and take steps to rebuild public trust," the company said in a news release.

Cruise communicated internally with employees during an all-hands meeting on Wednesday afternoon, according to people familiar with the matter. At that meeting, co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt told employees that the company had not paused operations elsewhere besides California and had no indication it was planning to do so. Instead, Vogt told employees the company is re-evaluating how it discloses information to regulators to ensure the message is communicated clearly.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspended Cruise's license on October 23, about three weeks after an accident in which a pedestrian was hit by a human-driven vehicle that fled the scene and became stuck under a Cruise self-driving taxi. Cruise's car was in the next lane at the time. The DMV is already investigating Cruise and forced the company to reduce the size of its fleet by 50% after a collision with an emergency vehicle in August.

In its suspension order, the DMV said it took the action after learning Cruise withheld video footage while investigating the Oct. 2 incident. The DMV said Cruise showed it a video of the accident captured by the AV's on-board camera, which showed the self-driving taxi stopping after a sudden braking action. The agency said it later learned more footage showed the self-driving car also attempted a side turn while the pedestrian was pinned under the car, traveling about 20 feet at a speed of 7 miles per hour, before finally coming to a complete stop.

Cruise has repeatedly insisted that it showed the full footage to the DMV, but acknowledged that it could have done a better job of explaining in detail what happened, and the DMV has stood by its assessment.