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On October 24, 2023, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (“DMV”) suspended Cruise LLC’s permits for deploying fully autonomous vehicles in California. Cruise LLC is a unit of General Motors that had released several driverless “Robo taxis” in the City of San Francisco.
The suspension applies to the testing and use of Cruise’s vehicles without a driver. The DMV noted that it will still allow Cruise to test vehicles with a human safety driver. The suspension is to take effect immediately.
The reason for the suspension was that the DMV determined that Cruise’s vehicles were “not safe for the public’s operation. There was also a noted concern regarding the way the vehicles interacted with pedestrians.
The suspension comes after an incident on October 2, 2023, wherein one of Cruise’s autonomous vehicles was involved in a hit-and-run incident in San Francisco. The incident began when a human driver in a Nissan Sentra hit a pedestrian crossing a street. The pedestrian was propelled in front of Cruise’s autonomous vehicle that was stopped at a red light. The autonomous vehicle, after detecting a collision, attempted to pull over to avoid further road safety issues. In this instance, however, due to the location of the struck pedestrian, the Cruise vehicle pulled the pedestrian forward approximately 20 feet, likely causing further injury.
While the autonomous vehicle did not cause the incident, it did cause further injury to the pedestrian who had been struck by a hit-and-run human driver and remained in the roadway.
The DMV noted that Cruise may seek reinstatement by complying with steps provided by the DMV. Details regarding the steps were not released to the public by the DMV.
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