California’s Department of Motor Vehicles Tuesday announced an immediate suspension of deployment and driverless testing permits for a driverless taxi company.
Vehicles operated by the company – Cruise LLC – are not safe for the public’s operation, said the DMV.
Cruise was founded a decade ago by Kyle Vogt in San Francisco, Calif., per the company website. Since then, the company has secured more than $10 billion in funding from GM, Honda and more. It began offering completely driverless taxi services to the public in San Francisco last January and production of Cruise’s “purpose-built self-driving vehicle” was expected to begin early this year at GM’s Factory Zero.
GM has faced its own challenges this year with the United Auto Worker’s strike and its plans to produce more electric vehicles. Audacy station KCBS in San Francisco reported this week that “General Motors is ditching its ambitious, self-imposed plans to build 400,000 electric vehicles by the middle of next year, signaling a slowdown in the market for EVs,” amid the strike.
According to the California DMV, the suspension of Cruise’s permits comes after the company misrepresented information related to the safety of autonomous technology used in its vehicles. Although the company website claims that its “driverless cars help make streets safer,” the cars have been implicated in dangerous incidents.
This summer, the San Francisco Standard reported that an unmanned Cruise autonomous vehicle hit a dog. That report noted that another Cruise vehicle was said to be in the way of first responders headed to the site of a mass shooting.
A vehicle operated by Waymo – another company that operates autonomous vehicles – also struck a dog, and killed it, this year, TechCrunch reported. Waymo touted its safety ahead of an event in Los Angeles this month – you can read KNX’s story about it.
“Public safety remains the California DMV’s top priority, and the department’s autonomous vehicle regulations provide a framework to facilitate the safe testing and deployment of this technology on California public roads,” said the DMV in its statement about the Cruise permit suspension. “When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits. There is no set time for a suspension.”
Along with notice of the suspension, the DMV provided Cruise with steps it can follow to reapply for its suspended permits and the company still has a permit for testing with a safety driver. Still, the DMV will not reinstate them until “the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction.”