Cruise has been offering autonomous taxi rides since 2022.
Courtesy Cruise
General Motors’
robotaxi company Cruise has halted its entire driverless fleet nationwide after its license to operate in California was suspended earlier this week.
The California ban is related to an accident, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) confirmed Tuesday. The DMV also said the performance of the vehicles wasn’t meeting expectations, the company may have misrepresented its data, and the company might have made choices at odds with public safety.
Cruise said it needs to take steps to rebuild public trust, “even if it means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, late Thursday.
“We have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust,” the company said in the post.
It’s a setback for GM (ticker: GM), which has owned part of Cruise since 2016. The auto maker has plans to expand its driverless taxi service across the U.S. and has forecast that Cruise could generate $50 billion in annual sales by 2030.
The DMV cited three state regulations for the suspension but it largely stems from safety concerns following an accident.
“In [an] incident being reviewed by the DMV, a human hit-and-run driver tragically struck and propelled the pedestrian into the path of the AV,” said GM in an emailed statement earlier in the week.
“The AV braked aggressively before impact and because it detected a collision, it attempted to pull over to avoid further safety issues. When the AV tried to pull over, it continued before coming to a final stop, pulling the pedestrian forward,” it added.
General Motors
did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
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