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Other automakers have used this approach for autonomous driving in the past and it's quickly becoming the standard. The cars are only available in California and Nevada and will only autonomously drive under certain circumstances. GM’s Cruise has had a rocky week, with California suspending the company’s license to operate as a result of misrepresentation by the company in an accident investigation. The DMV’s order of suspension, posted by news site Vice, accuses Cruise of failing to immediately disclose in an Oct. 3 meeting that its vehicle attempted to pull over after coming to an initial stop. In doing so, it dragged the pedestrian beneath the vehicle for about 20 feet at a peak speed of 7 mph.
Why have Cruise self driving vehicles been removed from roads? - TechHQ
Why have Cruise self driving vehicles been removed from roads?.
Posted: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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The California Department of Motor Vehicles says Cruise withheld footage of one of its cars dragging away an injured pedestrian after they were knocked into its path during a hit-and-run. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles says in a statement that it has determined that Cruise’s vehicles are not safe for public operation, and that the company ”misrepresented” safety information about its autonomous vehicle technology. In a filing on the suspension, the agency says that Cruise initially provided footage showing only the collision between its vehicle and the woman. It says Cruise did not disclose information about its car's subsequent “pull-over maneuver” that dragged the woman after the initial impact, and that the DMV only obtained full footage nine days after the crash.
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The Cruise vehicle ended up pinning and dragging the pedestrian, causing multiple traumatic injuries, officials said. 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. Cruise has faced increasing pushback in its pioneering test environment of San Francisco, where locals have sabotaged driverless test vehicles from Cruise and competitor Waymo (funded by Google owner Alphabet). Cruise AVs have famously blocked traffic by freezing up in situations they don't have a programmed response for, which has also occurred in Austin. Cruise AVs have also blocked emergency vehicles, leading in one case reported by SFGate to two stationary Cruise vehicles for delaying treatment of a pedestrian hit by a car, resulting in their death.
San Francisco Cruise Robotaxis Suspended by DMV - The San Francisco Standard
San Francisco Cruise Robotaxis Suspended by DMV.
Posted: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Self Driving Car
Prior to the decision, Cruise’s autonomous rides were limited to certain areas of The City between 10 p.m. Robocar companies put a strong emphasis (perhaps too strong) on avoiding errors for which they will be legally at fault over errors for which they will not face liability. In this case, though, Cruise should have played out this situation in both digital and real world simulations to detect it in advance.
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.
Our thoughts continue to be with the victim as we hope for a rapid and complete recovery. The California DMV today notified Cruise that the department is suspending Cruise’s autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permits, effective immediately. The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction. This decision does not impact the company’s permit for testing with a safety driver. Waymo is authorized to use a fleet of light-duty autonomous vehicles for commercial services within parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties.
DMV Statement on Cruise LLC Suspension
She says the agency was shown video of the entire incident, including the pull-over, the day after the crash. The DMV says Cruise will either have to appeal its decision or provide information about how it has addressed its technology’s “deficiencies” in order to win back its permit. 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. One day after the approval, as many as 10 of Cruise's driverless vehicles caused a traffic jam in San Francisco.
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Now, two days later, Cruise has “proactively” made the decision to suspend its driverless operations in the other areas it operates as well, namely, Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas. While all of the legal fault for such events is likely upon the driver of the Nissan who hit the pedestrian and fled the scene, we want the robotaxi to still do what it can to make things better, and especially not make them worse. This comes just months after the DMV asked Cruise to cut its fleet in half over safety concerns, with multiple incidents in the Bay Area involving crashes and injuries.
"These Cruise vehicles are dangerous on our streets. When they see tragedy or see danger or there's an obstacle in their way, all they know how to do is freeze." "Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives," the company said in a statement. "This incident raises many serious concerns about the safety of these Cruise driverless vehicles," reads a San Francisco Fire Department report on the March incident published by Mission Local, a San Francisco news site. In response, the company reduced the number of vehicles it had deployed by half while the city investigated the incident. And on October 2nd, a hit-and-run in San Francisco launched a pedestrian in front of a driverless Cruise vehicle, trapping her underneath for some time.
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. 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. "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.
“The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction,” the agency states. "When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits," the California DMV said in a statement. The gatherings in both cities questioned Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent veto of a bill that would have required human safety drivers in heavy autonomous trucks — which aren’t on the road yet but could be soon. 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. Most people are likely familiar with Tesla's famous Autopilot, which is a Level 2 driving system. That means Autopilot can drive a Tesla on its own, but there has to be a human to monitor the road at all times and retake control if something goes awry.
The turquoise lights also make an appearance in the cabin to let the driver know that the system is active. The system includes driver-facing cameras, so if a driver does something like using a mobile phone or dozing off, the system will prompt them to turn off Drive Pilot and take manual control again. So if you were hoping to catch up on your TikTok while your car drove you to work, think again. This move by Cruise today does seem to finally take responsibility for the post-accident scenario, which is a positive development. Hopefully this will let the temperature in the room cool a little, and we can have some better conversations and more responsibility going forward on the part of Cruise.
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. The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday suspended Cruise's deployment and testing permits for its autonomous vehicles, effective immediately. The DMV’s order of suspension, which TechCrunch has viewed, states that Cruise withheld video footage from an ongoing investigation, prompting the agency to suspend its permit. The DMV said it met with Cruise representatives on October 3, one day after an incident that left a pedestrian, who had initially been hit by a human-driven car, stuck under a Cruise robotaxi. If a large fleet with good overall statistical safety is shut down, the switch to human driving will probably harm many more people than are protected.
On Aug. 18, just over a week after Cruise received approval for expanded service, the DMV requested Cruise "immediately reduce its active fleet of operating vehicles by 50%" until an investigation was completed, according to the DMV. First responders in San Francisco have also complained that the autonomous vehicles have repeatedly interfered with emergency vehicles and caused other incidents, especially after the state approved a massive expansion of the cars in August. The suspension came after the DMV reviewed the Oct. 2 crash , in which a non-Cruise driver first struck a pedestrian, pushing the pedestrian into the path of a Cruise robotaxi.
Cruise also operates robotaxis in Austin, Texas; Houston; Phoenix; Miami; and a few other cities, Cruise spokesperson Navideh Forghani said. She said operations in other regions would not be affected by the California suspension. Under state law established in 2012, the DMV is required to adopt regulations covering both the testing and public use of autonomous vehicles on California roadways. Regulations to allow for the deployment of autonomous vehicles were adopted and took effect on April 2, 2018. Regulations allowing for light-duty autonomous delivery vehicles weighing less than 10,001 pounds were approved on December 16, 2019.
Enforcement against Cruise raises questions about the fate of competing driving automation programs, such as that of Waymo, as well as less-capable assists such as Tesla's Full Self-Driving. Tesla specifically faces a court case regarding the performance of its Autopilot system, which is expected to be sent to a jury Tuesday according to Reuters. In addition, other companies watching this situation should now go back and run their own track tests and digital simulations to assure they do well in this situation. While the DMV is particularly upset by their belief that they were shown the partial story, that should get resolved, and the real issue is whether the vehicle is unsafe, unless some deliberate deception can be shown. However, if the DMV assertion is correct—and Cruise certainly never mentioned these elements to me in my discussions with them—Cruise has lost a great deal of credibility by not being front and center about this issue.
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