A cruise vehicle in San Francisco on February 2, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
General engines Autonomous vehicle unit Cruise will redeploy cars on U.S. roads for the first time since October, starting with a small fleet of human-driven vehicles in Phoenix, the company announced Tuesday.
The relaunch comes after the company ceased operations weeks after an Oct. 2 accident in which a pedestrian in San Francisco was dragged 20 feet by a Cruise robotaxi after being struck by another vehicle.
The redeployed vehicles will no longer operate as before – like robo-taxis – but will “create maps and gather traffic information in select cities, starting with Phoenix,” the company said.
Cruise said its “goal is to resume driverless operations” but did not provide a timeline for doing so. It also did not provide a timeline for the expansion of human-driven vehicles to other cities.
The company called the relaunched fleet with human drivers “a critical step in validating our autonomous driving systems as we work to return to our driverless mission.”
“In October 2023, we suspended operations of our fleet to focus on rebuilding trust with regulators and the communities we serve, and to rethink our approach to safety,” Cruise said in an article from blog. “We have made significant progress, guided by new company leadership, recommendations from third-party experts and a focus on close partnership with the communities in which our vehicles operate. We are committed to this improvement in the part of a continuing effort.”
An independent investigation into the October incident and its aftermath, ordered by GM and Cruise, found that cultural problems, ineptitude and poor leadership were at the center of the regulatory oversights that led to the accident. The investigation also investigated allegations of a cover-up by Cruise executives, but found no evidence to support the claims.
Cruise said in January that he “accepted” the report’s findings. The San Francisco-based company, of which GM owns about 80%, said it would “address all” recommendations and “cooperate fully” with investigations by state and federal agencies following the accident of October 2.
The company said in January that investigations or inquiries into the incident included those by the California DMV, the California Public Utilities Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. UNITED STATES.
Before the accident, Cruise planned an aggressive expansion of robotaxis outside its home market, where the majority of its vehicles operated.
In addition to the shutdown, Cruise’s leadership was gutted: its co-founders, including CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt, resigned and nine other executives were ousted. And the company laid off 24% of its workforce, as well as a series of contractors.
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