Cruise, the self-driving taxi company owned by General Motors, could face fines and sanctions for failing to disclose details of an Oct. 2 crash, specifically that one of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian 20 feet, according to a ruling by a California agency.Cruise is working to rebuild public trust and stay afloat after losing its license to operate in California after allegedly concealing key information from regulators about a car crash in San Francisco.
Over the past two months, Cruise has suspended all driverless and manual operations across the United States, conducted a safety review of its self-driving taxis and hired a law firm to review its response to the incident. The company recalled its entire fleet and halted production of its Origin self-driving taxis. Company co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt was fired along with chief product officer Daniel Kan.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Friday ordered Cruise to defend itself at a Feb. 6 hearing, accusing Cruise of failing to provide "complete information" to the commission about the incident and "making misleading public comments about its interactions with the commission."
On the evening of October 2, a human driver hit a pedestrian in San Francisco. The impact caused the pedestrian to fall onto the path of a Cruise self-driving taxi. The self-driving car braked hard and came to a stop, but eventually ran over the pedestrian.
The CPUC and the California Department of Motor Vehicles said the agency understands the sequence of events. Cruise allegedly missed what happened next. While the pedestrian was still stuck under the vehicle, CruiseAV attempted to drive again, resulting in the pedestrian being towed again.
On October 3, 2023, Cruise’s Jose Alvarado called the Commission’s CPED analyst Ashlyn Kong to inform her of the collision. During the call, Mr. Alvarado’s version of events included only that Cruise AV stopped immediately after hitting the pedestrian and contacted Cruise’s remote assistance. When Mr. Alvarado described the incident on October 2, 2023, he ignored that CruiseAV had made a maneuver that caused the pedestrian to be dragged an extra 20 feet at a speed of 7 mph.
In the following weeks, the CPUC and DMV issued data requests seeking more information about the incident, including video files. According to the CPUC, Cruise did not provide the agency with complete video of the incident until October 19, a full 15 days later.
After the incident, Cruise published a blog post describing the incident in detail, which has now been taken down. The company wrote in a blog post that it had "proactively shared information...including the full video" with various regulatory agencies, including the DMV, CPUC and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Kong said in a statement that Cruise's blog post was "inaccurate" and that the full video was not shared in response to a data request more than two weeks after the incident.
The commission's ruling did not include specific penalties, but the agency can fine utilities $500 to $100,000 for each day of violations, in addition to other penalties. This means Cruise could face a fine of up to $2.25 million, taking into account the time it took for the company to turn over complete video of the incident.
The CPUC has suspended Cruise’s self-driving taxi fare collection permit in California and is considering a request from the city of San Francisco to rehear the August hearing that first approved Cruise’s fare collection permit. Alphabet's Waymo received a similar permit around the same time, despite strong opposition from city stakeholders. Waymo has largely avoided public outrage so far, but Cruise's woes have rippled across the industry.
GM has until Dec. 18 to submit a "verified statement" to Administrative Law Judge Robert M. Mason III that will include "all facts, arguments and legal basis supporting Cruise's position," and "a three-ring binder containing copies of all authoritative documents cited in the verified statement."
Cruise said the company is committed to rebuilding trust with regulators and will respond to the CPUC in a timely manner. GM is working with law firm Quinn Emanuel to review Cruise's response to the Oct. 2 incident, including the company's interactions with law enforcement, regulators and the media. Cruise also showed a shortened version of the video to TechCrunch in early October.
A spokesman for the company said the external review should help Cruise strengthen its protocols and improve its response to such incidents in the future.
It will take time for Cruise to return to its pre-incident state. GM has told investors that Cruise will hit $50 billion in annual revenue by 2030. The company is expanding rapidly, announcing new test and launch cities seemingly every week. In addition to San Francisco, Cruise is charging for self-driving cars in Austin, Houston and Phoenix, and quietly launched a self-driving test vehicle in Miami just before it lost its license in California.
Cruise said last month it planned to eventually reintroduce self-driving cars in one city, but did not provide a timetable. The company is also reviewing layoff plans.
Last week, General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra said the automaker would cut "hundreds of millions of dollars" in spending at the unit next year. Cruise has lost more than $8 billion since 2017, including $732 million in the third quarter of 2023.