Cruz continues to get kicked as he falls. The General Motors Co.-owned robotaxi company could face fines and penalties after failing to disclose details of an incident that occurred on October 2 — specifically that one of its vehicles pulled a pedestrian 20 feet away, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. to rule From the California agency.
The regulatory action comes as Cruise struggles to rebuild public trust and keep operations running after losing its permits to operate in California for allegedly withholding important information from regulators about the San Francisco plane crash.
Over the past two months, Cruise has temporarily halted all driverless and manual driving operations across the United States, implemented a safety review of its robotaxis, and hired a law firm to study its response to the incident. The company has recalled its entire fleet and halted production of the Origin robotaxi. Co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt has stepped down, along with chief product officer Daniel Kahn.
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Friday I ordered a cruise To appear at the February 6 hearing to defend herself against accusations that she failed to provide “full information to the committee” about the incident, and “made misleading public comments regarding her interactions with the committee.”
On the evening of October 2, a human driver struck a pedestrian in San Francisco, sending the pedestrian falling into the path of a robotaxi. The self-driving car performed a strong braking maneuver and stopped, but ended up running over pedestrians in the process.
The CPUC — and the California Department of Motor Vehicles — say the order of events has been shared with the agency. Cruz allegedly left behind what came next. The Cruise AV attempted a maneuver while the pedestrian was still pinned under the vehicle, dragging them along.
According to the CPUC ruling:
On October 3, 2023, Jose Alvarado of Cruz telephoned Ashlyn Kong, a CPED analyst for the commission, and informed her of the collision. During this telephone meeting, Mr. Alvarado’s description of the incident included only that the Cruise AV immediately stopped upon impact with the pedestrian and contacted Cruise Remote Assistance. Mr. Alvarado’s description of the October 2, 2023 incident omitted that the Cruise AV engaged in a vest maneuver which resulted in the pedestrian being pulled an additional 20 feet at a speed of 7 mph.
Over the next two weeks, the CPUC and DMV issued data requests seeking more information about the incident, including video documentation. According to the CPUC, it took Cruz until October 19, or 15 full days, to provide the agency with the full video of the incident.
After the incident, Cruz published a blog post, which has since been deleted, detailing the events. The company wrote in the post that it “proactively shared information… including the full video” with various regulators, including the DMV, CPUC, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Kong said in a statement that what Cruz posted on his blog was “inaccurate.”
“The full video was only shared in response to a data request more than two weeks after the incident,” she said.
The commission’s ruling did not include a specific penalty, but the commission could impose a fine of between $500 and $100,000 on public facilities per day in the event of a violation, in addition to other penalties. This means Cruz could face fines of a maximum of $2.25 million, given the amount of time it took the company to deliver a full video of the event.
The CPUC has already suspended Cruise’s permits to charge passengers for robo-taxi rides in California, and is considering the city of San Francisco’s request to redo the August hearing that granted Cruise a permit to charge in the first place. Alphabet-owned Waymo also obtained a similar permit at the same time, despite strong opposition from city stakeholders. So far, Waymo has mostly managed to stay out of public wrath, but Cruise’s problems are affecting the industry overall.
GM has until December 18 to hand-deliver a “verified statement,” which will include “all facts, arguments and legal authorities supporting Cruz’s position” to Administrative Law Judge Robert M. Mason III,With a three-ring binder containing a copy of all references mentioned in the notarized statement.
Cruise told TechCrunch that she is committed to rebuilding trust with regulators and will respond in due course to the CPUC. GM is working with law firm Quinn Emanuel to study Cruz’s response to the Oct. 2 incident, including the company’s interactions with law enforcement, regulators and the media. Cruz also showed TechCrunch a shortened version of the video in early October.
A company spokesperson said the external review should help Cruise strengthen its protocols and improve its response to these types of incidents in the future.
It will take some time for Cruz to return to how he was before this incident. GM told investors that Cruise was on track to generate $50 billion in revenue annually by 2030. The company was expanding rapidly, announcing new cities for testing and launches seemingly every week. Aside from San Francisco, Cruise has been charging for driverless rides in Austin, Houston and Phoenix, and quietly launched driverless test vehicles in Miami before losing its permits in California.
Cruise said last month that it planned to relaunch in one city, but did not provide a timeline. The company is also reviewing its layoff plans.
Last week, GM CEO Mary Barra said the automaker would cut unit spending next year by “hundreds of millions.” Cruise has lost more than $8 billion since 2017, including $732 million in the third quarter of 2023.