California has ordered Cruise, General Motors’ robotaxi subsidiary, to remove its cars from state roads.
In a statement which called for the “immediate suspension” of Cruise’s driverless cars, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said its decision was based “upon the performance of the vehicles” which it determined “are not safe for the public’s operation”.
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It suspended Cruise’s autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permit, ending efforts by the company for the time being to test the cars without safety drivers.
It added the “manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safely of the autonomous technology of its vehicles”.
In a statement cited by Reuters, Cruise said: “We will be pausing operations of our driverless AVs in San Francisco. Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives.”
Cruise said the DMV was reviewing an incident that happened earlier in October where one of its AVs braked but did not avoid striking a pedestrian who had just been involved in a hit and run.
The car responsible for the Cruise accident had a human driver.
“The AV detected a collision, bringing the vehicle to a stop, then attempted to pull over to avoid causing further road safety issues, pulling the individual forward approximately 20 feet,” Cruise said in a statement.
It added the firm’s safety records show its AVs “are safer than a human benchmark in dense, urban environments”.
Last August, Cruise was under investigation by the DMV after an AV was involved in another incident where it collided with an emergency vehicle.
