California DMV suspends permits for Cruise driverless robotaxis CBS San Francisco

Table Of Content

• Autonomous Vehicles
• Congress puts TikTok divest-or-ban bill on fast track, could become law in days
• Massive expansion of driverless robotaxis approved for San Francisco despite public safety concerns
• Online Testing
• A ‘cold-blooded killer’ called Smiley haunted L.A. for 14 years. How he finally faced justice
• California DMV Halts Cruise’s Self-Driving Robotaxis Statewide
• Vehicle Industry Svcs. Resources
• California Says Cruise Lied About Robotaxi Crash Footage, Suspends Operations

The DMV said in its order of suspension that the Cruise automobile came to a complete stop but "subsequently attempted to perform a pullover maneuver while the pedestrian was underneath the vehicle." "What we have seen is that Cruise has not done such safety stand downs voluntarily," Koopman told CNBC. "Rather CA DMV has forced them do safety stand downs — once after the fire truck crash with a reduction in the size of the operational fleet, and now after this pedestrian crash." "Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV's response to this kind of extremely rare event," the company went on to say. Cruise said the company had shared information with the DMV, CPUC and NHTSA, including video. City officials criticized the move and asked the CPUC to pause the authorization in favor of an incremental approach, amid reports of the vehicles making wrong turns, stalling in the middle of the road and interfering with first responders.

Autonomous Vehicles

This is a challenge, because vehicles don’t have sensors under the car, and any visual sensors there would quickly get dirty. Ultrasonic sensors could help detect this, but otherwise the detection must come from implied clues, such as a change in the driving characteristics, the bumps of driving over something (or someone) and the disappearance of anything under the car without its reappearance. Side LIDAR can detect anything not completely under the vehicle but that can’t be depended on. With some irony, I wrote about this problem just a few days before this incident as well. Obviously it’s a terrible scenario to be prevented, but it’s also in the class of special situation where the behavior is very non-human and in a frightening way.

Congress puts TikTok divest-or-ban bill on fast track, could become law in days

The additional video was given to the DMV after a request was made, and they received it on Oct. 13. Following the CPUC's decision, Cruise agreed to a request by the DMV to cut their fleet of robotaxis in the city in half after two crashes, one of which involved an emergency vehicle. Generally, in chain-reaction road incidents, legal fault goes to the party that started the chain. In this case, however, the Cruise made an error after everything had stopped, which may arguably break that chain, though it would never be in that situation without the hit-and-run. The DMV’s concern could lie in the fact that this might happen even if the Cruise itself had first struck the pedestrian.

Massive expansion of driverless robotaxis approved for San Francisco despite public safety concerns

“San Francisco has long held that Cruise vehicles were not ready for prime time and the state should have never allowed their unlimited deployment in the first place,” he added. “Shortly after the incident, our team proactively shared information with the California DMV, CPUC, and NHTSA, including the full video,” Forghani continued. This suspension comes one week after the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration said it was investigating the company following two incident reports of injuring pedestrians. However, the DMV in its Order of Suspension said Cruise failed to hand over video that showed what the car did after the initial stop. According to the letter, Cruise did not submit the entirety of the footage when the California Highway Patrol and DMV opened their investigation on October 3. The latter half was only released after the DMV learned from another government agency that the Cruise AV continued to drive after initially stopping.

Online Testing

U.S. customers can buy a yearly subscription of Drive Pilot in 2024 EQS sedans and S-Class car models for $2,500. Mercedes began selling level 3-enabled cars in its home country of Germany in May 2022. The European packages cost 5,000 to 7,000 euros ($5,300 and $7,500) for a three-year membership.

California halts operations of Cruise self-driving robotaxis - NBC News

California halts operations of Cruise self-driving robotaxis.

Posted: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

A ‘cold-blooded killer’ called Smiley haunted L.A. for 14 years. How he finally faced justice

AVs registered in California traveled approximately 1.99 million miles in autonomous mode on public roads in 2020. The total miles driven by Waymo and Cruise, 1.39 million, is 70 percent of the total autonomous miles driven in California in 2020. Driverless cars run by Cruise, which is owned by GM, and Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, have been involved in numerous mishaps in the city over the past several months. The suspension does not affect Waymo, the other company with a permit for a driverless taxi fleet.

California DMV Halts Cruise’s Self-Driving Robotaxis Statewide

California DMV Halts Cruise's Self-Driving Robotaxis Statewide - Forbes

California DMV Halts Cruise's Self-Driving Robotaxis Statewide.

Posted: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

"These are problems that we had been warning them about for a long time," John Bouchard of Teamsters Local 350 told CBS News Bay Area. "If they would have listened to us in the first place, or engaged with us, or engaged with city officials before they were making those decisions, things would have turned out very differently." The DMV said the Cruise vehicle tried to do a pullover maneuver while the victim was underneath the car, and they only learned about it from another department.

Vehicle Industry Svcs. Resources

They have also been involved in a number of minor fender benders and rear-end collisions that have some residents worried about escalation as more are deployed. Following the incident, the National Highway Traffic Safety opened a safety investigation to determine whether Cruise’s driverless vehicles pose a risk to pedestrians. The company’s AVs are “encroaching” on pedestrians in crosswalks and elsewhere and could pose a risk to their safety, the agency said in its report.

California Says Cruise Lied About Robotaxi Crash Footage, Suspends Operations

It should be noted that NHTSA opened its own investigation into Cruise’s autonomous vehicle system following several incidents involving pedestrians in San Francisco, including the October 2 event. Cruise had already been under investigation by federal and state transportation officials after several crashes, some involving pedestrians. In response to the Department of Motor Vehicles’ decision, Cruise pulled its driverless vehicles from the road in California. "When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits," the DMV wrote in a statement. The luxury automaker has become the first in the nation to start selling self-driving cars—at least those that afford riders a hands-free experience—to regular consumers. As of April 11, there were 65 Mercedes autonomous vehicles available for sale in California, Fortune has learned through an open records request submitted to the state’s DMV.

California and Nevada are the only two states where the company can legally sell the technology to consumers. The two state DMVs gave Mercedes approval to begin selling the cars last year—Nevada in January, and California in June. Mercedes announced in September its plans to begin sales, but this is the first news of the cars actually reaching consumers. The next time you’re traveling on the interstate and see a fellow driver whose hands are full with everything but the wheel—scrolling TikTok, applying mascara, eating breakfast—don’t panic. It’s all legal in certain states, as long as they’re in a new Mercedes with autonomous driving technology.

The roughly 20 second clip ended just after the Cruise vehicle came to a complete stop after striking the pedestrian. Neither the video nor Cruise's description of the incident at the time included any reference to the "pullover maneuver" that resulted in the vehicle dragging the pedestrian along a normally busy street within downtown San Francisco. In fact, a spokesperson for the company says the entire clip of the accident, including the portion showing the Cruise car dragging the pedestrian, was shown to DMV officials several times on Oct. 3, just one day after the accident. Cruise says several days later, when the DMV requested a copy of the video, Cruise provided DMV officials with the very same video it had shown DMV investigators just ten days earlier. It’s likely to conclude that the software in the Cruise vehicle was unaware the pedestrian was being dragged by their vehicle, as it seems unlikely the system would wish to get out of the lane in that situation. It’s possible that the vehicle’s urge to clear the lane relates to the number of complaints that have been lodged about Cruise vehicles blocking lanes, which would be a tragic irony.

As of earlier this year, the company was losing nearly $7 million a day, according to GM’s earnings report. Following the incident, Cruise reached out to several government agencies, including the California DMV, the California Public Utilities Commission that regulates commercial ridehail, and NHTSA. The company shared the video from its vehicle of the incident with investigators and is answering their questions, Lindow said.