Autonomous vehicle startup Cruise has admitted to filing a false report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding an accident where one of its robotaxis dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco.
According to the DOJ, the San Francisco-based company filed false documents to "impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation" of the 2023 crash that involved one of its robotaxis. Cruise has agreed to pay $500,000.
"Today's deferred prosecution agreement holds Cruise, LLC and its employees accountable for their lack of candor in a federal regulatory compliance action," said Cory LeGars, special agent-in-charge of the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General Western Region. "Together with our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners, we will engage our collective resources to pursue companies and individuals who intentionally circumvent administration of federal regulations."
In October 2023, one of Cruise's robotaxi ran over a pedestrian in San Francisco. The vehicle did not detect the person was underneath the vehicle and then attempted to pull over, in turn dragging the victim 20 feet. However, the pedestrian had initially been hit by a human-driven car and landed on the path of a Cruise robotaxi.
Per the DOJ, the General Motors-owned company filed documents with the NHTSA, as federal regulations required, but omitted that the robotaxi dragged the person.
The omission of that information rendered the report filed incomplete by NHTSA guidelines.
The day after the incident, employees met with NHTSA and provided a video of the incident. According to the DOJ, Cruise did not correct its accident report until 10 days after the incident.
"Cruise will comply with the requirements set forth in the agreement, as we continue to move forward under new leadership and with a firm commitment to transparency with our regulators," said Craig Glidden, president and chief administrative officer at Cruise.
When details of the incident came to light, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspected the company of having permits to overtake any self-driving vehicles on public roads.
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Currently, the company has launched small fleets in Arizona and Texas, where vehicles will operate with a human safety driver behind the wheel.
According to Crunchbase data, Cruise has raised over $15 billion from investors such as GM and SoftBank. Since acquiring Cruise in 2016, General Motors has spent and lost upwards of $8 billion. Of that, $3.48 billion was lost in 2023.
“Federal laws and regulations are in place to protect public safety on our roads. Companies with self-driving cars that seek to share our roads and crosswalks must be fully truthful in their reports to their regulators,” said Martha Boersch, chief of the office of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division.
