If you'll recall, Cruise suspended all its driverless operations a few weeks after an incident in California, wherein one of its robotaxis ran over and dragged a pedestrian who was hurled onto its path after being hit by another vehicle. Both the California DMV and the California Public Utilities Commission revoked its licenses to operate in the state due to that incident and other safety-related issues. By November last year, Cruise also suspended manned robotaxi rides as part of an expanded safety probe conducted by an independent consulting firm.

Kyle Vogt, the company's co-founder and CEO, resigned shortly after that. The company also dismissed nine key executives following an allegation by authorities that Cruise withheld a video showing the victim in the California incident pinned underneath its vehicle. In December, the robotaxi-maker laid off 24 percent of its workforce, which was around 900 personnel. The Intercept also reported last year that it saw internal safety assessment materials concluding that Cruise's vehicles had problems recognizing children.

Cruise said in its post that it's been conducting testing on closed courses over the past few months as it works on rebuilding trust. All the robotaxis heading to Phoenix will be human-driven vehicles without autonomous systems engaged. Its ultimate goal, of course, is to deploy fully driverless vehicles again, but the company didn't say if it has a target date and didn't share a timeline if it does have one.

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Waymo said it's going to "gradually welcom[e] more riders into the service" and "begin charging fares for rider-only trips in the city" in the coming weeks." Apparently, it already has 100,000 signups in its waitlist and expects demand to be "incredibly high," so it wants to take an unhurried approach "to ensure riders receive a reliable service." The company promises to make its fully autonomous trips "available to everyone over time." Meanwhile, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said his company will continue collaborating with regulators to achieve their shared commitment to deliver "safer, cleaner and more accessible transportation options."

At the moment, Waymo is operating 200 cars in San Francisco, while Cruise has 300 vehicles in its autonomous fleet. Before securing CPUC's approval, Cruise could only offer fared passenger rides in limited areas of San Francisco from 10 PM to 6AM without a safety driver onboard and paid rides any time with a safety driver. Waymo, on the the other hand, could only charge passengers any time of the day with a safety driver present.

According to The San Francisco Standard, commission President Alice Reynolds and commissioners Darcie Houck and John Reynolds voted in favor of the expansion. However, commissioner Genevieve Shiroma voted against it, arguing that the CPUC didn't have sufficient information needed to be able to accurately evaluate the impact of autonomous vehicles on first responders. Their decision was the final hurdle the companies had to face to offer 24/7 fared rides across the city. It came after listening to public concerns about the safety of autonomous vehicles and to testimonies about how the technology could help the elderly and people with disabilities be more independent.

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The DMV said in a statement that its primary focus is "the safe operation of autonomous vehicles and safety of the public who share the road with these vehicles." It also added that it "reserves the right, following investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits" if it determines that a company's vehicles is a threat to public safety. The agency has asked Cruise to limit its driverless vehicles in operation to 50 during daytime and 150 at night, at least until the investigation is done.

In an explanation about the collision posted on the company's website, Cruise's General Manager for San Francisco, Greg Dietrerich, said the robotaxi identified the emergency vehicle as soon as it came into view. It was also able to distinguish the fire truck's sirens "as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise." However, it wasn't possible to see vehicles coming from around the corner "until they are physically very close to the intersection" where the incident happened. Further, the autonomous vehicle had trouble predicting the fire truck's path, because it moved into the "oncoming lane of traffic" to bypass a red light. Dietrerich said Cruise's AV identified the risk of a collision and hit the brake to reduce its speed, but it wasn't able to avoid the crash completely due to those conditions.

The DMV's request comes just a few days after the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted in favor of allowing both Cruise and Waymo to charge fares for fully driverless rides any time of the day in San Francisco. Before that, Cruise could only offer fared rides with no safety driver onboard in limited areas of the city between 10PM and 6AM. The only commissioner who voted against the companies' paid ride expansion argued that the CPUC didn't have enough information to accurately evaluate the impact of autonomous vehicles on first responders.

Cruise has confirmed to Engadget that it will comply with the DMV's request. A spokesperson said in a statement: "Over one hundred people lose their lives every day on American roadways, and countless others are badly injured. We believe it’s clear that Cruise positively impacts overall road safety, and look forward to working with the CA DMV to make any improvements and provide any data they need to reinforce the safety and efficiency of our fleet."

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The pedestrian was reportedly walking in a crosswalk at Market and Fifth in San Francisco when she was hit by a green car, which fled the scene. A witness allegedly told investigators that he watched the first car strike the woman, causing her to roll off its side and into the path of the Cruise car. As the autonomous taxi proceeded through the green light, it ran over her and came to a complete stop, pinning her leg under its rear axle and tire. Cruise says there weren’t any passengers in the AV, which was in autonomous mode.

The SF Chronicle says that it viewed a video recording of the incident provided by Cruise to confirm the sequence of events. The company offered to make the video available to Engadget, but we declined.

A bicycle delivery person reportedly tried to reassure the woman that an ambulance was coming and that it would be okay. “She was just screaming,” the cyclist reportedly told the SF Chronicle. City firefighters arrived and used the jaws of life to lift the car off the woman, who was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with “multiple traumatic injuries,” according to fire captain Justin Schorr. He said the car appeared programmed to stop and turn on its hazard lights after sensing an obstruction (in this case, a human being) beneath it.

“At approximately 9:30 pm on October 2, a human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV,” Cruise communications manager Hannah Lindow wrote in a statement to Engadget. “The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV. The AV then braked aggressively to minimize the impact. The driver of the other vehicle fled the scene, and at the request of the police the AV was kept in place. Our heartfelt concern and focus is the wellbeing of the person who was injured and we are actively working with police to help identify the responsible driver.”

The nightmarish incident occurred as driverless taxis have expanded their reach in the city. Cruise and Waymo got approval from California regulators this year to operate and charge fares for fully autonomous cars in San Francisco at any time of the day. However, the state’s DMV asked the company in August to reduce its fleet of driverless taxis by half, pending an investigation into crashes involving the AVs. Cruise agreed to operate no more than 50 autonomous taxis during the day and no more than 150 of them at night.

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Initially, Cruise will have the authority to operate seven days a week from 9PM to 6AM only in Downtown, Midtown, East Downtown, Montrose, Hyde Park and River Oaks neighborhoods. The company typically begins by deploying a small fleet of vehicles to cover a limited number of locations in a city, but it eventually expands its vehicles' availability.

It will probably take some time before the company can operate around the clock in Houston, though. In San Francisco, for instance, Cruise was only given permission to offer paid daytime rides in August, months after staff members started testing its 24/7 service. It's worth noting that while Cruise was able to secure permission for the expansion, the company still faces pushback from critics raising concerns about the safety of autonomous vehicle tech. One of the commissioners from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) even voted against allowing the company to operate during daytime hours, arguing that the agency didn't have enough information to accurately evaluate the impact of autonomous vehicles on first responders.

Shortly after the CPUC gave the company permission to offer paid daytime rides, the California DMV opened an investigation into a Cruise robotaxi's collision with a fire truck. The agency then asked Cruise to cut its fleet in half and to limit its driverless vehicles in operation to 50 during daytime and 150 at night while the investigation is ongoing.

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Instead, it has a big cabin space where up to six passengers can sit facing each other, and its doors slide open like a subway's. "The opportunity for the ridehail service in Japan, which is expected to be the first of its kind, is huge," GM said in its announcement. It has the potential to solve the country's ongoing driver shortage and could provide an alternative for those who can't use Tokyo's extensive train and subway system for any reason.

While it's still early days for the project, the companies already have a vision for how they want to execute their plans. They're looking to start by deploying "dozens" of Cruise Origins in central Tokyo by 2026 before expanding the fleet to 500 Origins. After that, they're hoping to make the service available outside of the capital's center. Like any other similar service, passengers will be able to hail an Origin through a dedicated app, as well as pay for their ride.

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According to an emailed statement the California DMV supplied to Engadget, the suspension was based on safety-related regulations. These include:

13 CCR §228.20 (b) (6) – Based upon the performance of the vehicles, the Department determines the manufacturer’s vehicles are not safe for the public’s operation.

13 CCR §228.20 (b) (3) – The manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.

13 CCR §227.42 (b)(5) – Any act or omission of the manufacturer or one of its agents, employees, contractors, or designees which the department finds makes the conduct of autonomous vehicle testing on public roads by the manufacturer an unreasonable risk to the public.

13 CCR §227.42 (c)- The department shall immediately suspend or revoke the Manufacturer’s Testing Permit or a Manufacturer’s Testing Permit – Driverless Vehicles if a manufacturer is engaging in a practice in such a manner that immediate suspension is required for the safety of persons on a public road.

The CA DMV says it has supplied Cruise with a path back to driverless operation in the state. “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 statement reads. The agency added that the suspension doesn’t affect Cruise’s ability to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver.

Cruise and Waymo received approval from California regulators earlier this year to operate and charge fares for fully autonomous cars in San Francisco at any time of the day. But the DMV asked the company in August to rein in its fleet by half, citing an investigation into crashes involving the autonomous vehicles. At the time, Cruise agreed to operate no more than 50 robotaxis in San Francisco during the day and at most 150 of them at night. However, today’s move abruptly stops those agreements, at least temporarily ceasing all safety-driverless autonomous operations in California until further notice.

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One of the latest incidents involving a Cruise vehicle happened in early October when a woman was hit by another car and was hurled in front of one of the company's driverless vehicles. Cruise's robotaxi stopped on top of her leg and pinned her underneath until first responders arrived and could extract her. The DMV suspended the company's permits a few weeks afterward.

As CNBC notes, this move comes shortly after GM CEO Mary Barra said the automaker will support Cruise's expansion with "safety" as its "gating factor." TechCrunch says it also comes just a day after an all-hands meeting, wherein CEO Kyle Vogt told his staff that Cruise hasn't paused operations outside of California. To note, the company has driverless fleets in Phoenix, Austin, Houston, Dallas and Miami, as well.

The company didn't elaborate on what examining its tools and systems entail and how exactly it intends to "rebuild public trust." For now, Cruise will only be deploying autonomous vehicles with drivers behind the wheel.

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The most concerning issue is that Cruise reportedly kept its vehicles on the streets even though it knew they had problems recognizing children, The Intercept reported. According to internal, previously unreported safety assessment materials, Cruises autonomous vehicles may have been unable to effectively detect children in order to take extra precautions.

"Cruise AVs may not exercise additional care around children," the document states. Because of that, the company was concerned that its robotaxis might drive too fast near children who could move unexpectedly into the street. Cruise also lacks data around child-specific situations, like kids separating from adults, falling, riding bicycles or wearing costumes.

In one simulation, the company couldn't rule out a scenario where a vehicle strikes a child. In another specific test drive, a vehicle detected a child-sized dummy but still struck it with a mirror at 28 MPH. The company chalked up the problems to a inadequate software and testing — specifically, it lacks AI software that could automatically detect child-shaped objects around the car and maneuver accordingly.

In a statement to The Intercept, Cruise admitted that its vehicles sometimes temporarily lost track of children by the side of the road during simulation testing. It added that the problem was fixed and only seen in testing and not on public streets, though it didn't say what specific actions it took to resolve the issue. A spokesperson also said that the system hadn't failed to detect the children, but did fail to classify them as such.

It further stated that the odds of an accident involving children were relatively low. "We determined from observed performance on-road, the risk of the potential collision with a child could occur once every 300 million miles at fleet driving, which we have since improved upon. There have been no on-road collisions with children."

The report also notes that Cruise AVs have trouble detecting large holes in the road, such as construction site pits with crews inside, something the company itself called a "major risk." GM's own documents indicated that even with its small AV fleet, a vehicle was likely to drive into such a hole at least once a year — and into a pit with people inside once every four years.

That scenario almost happened, according to video reviewed by The Intercept. Onboard cameras show an AV driving right to the edge of a pit, inches away from workers, despite the presence of construction cones. It only stopped because someone waved a "slow" sign in front of the windshield.

"Enhancing our AV’s ability to detect potential hazards around construction zones has been an area of focus, and over the last several years we have conducted extensive human-supervised testing and simulations resulting in continued improvements," the company said in a statement. "These include enhanced cone detection, full avoidance of construction zones with digging or other complex operations, and immediate enablement of the AV’s Remote Assistance support/supervision by human observers."

All of that raises the question of whether Cruise should be operating its vehicles on public roads. "If you can’t see kids, it’s very hard for you to accept that not being high risk — no matter how infrequent you think it’s going to happen," Carnegie Mellon engineering professor Phil Koopman told The Intercept.

The child detection issue isn't the only recent exposé on Cruise, as it turns out that the robotaxis aren't really autonomous at all. In fact, they require human assistance every four to five miles, according to a report in The New York Timesconfirmed in large part by Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt in Hacker News.

"Cruise AVs are being remotely assisted (RA) 2-4 percent of the time on average, in complex urban environments." wrote Vogt. That equates to someone intervening every four to five miles, which could be multiple times on many trips. There is typically one remote assistant "for every 15-20 driverless AVs," Cruise stated later.

In a statement to CNBC, the company provided additional details: "Often times the AV proactively initiates these [remote assistance actions] before it is certain it will need help such as when the AV’s intended path is obstructed (e.g construction blockages or detours) or if it needs help identifying an object," a spokesperson wrote. "Remote assistance is in session about 2-4 percent of the time the AV is on the road, which is minimal, and in those cases the RA advisor is providing wayfinding intel to the AV, not controlling it remotely."

Finally, it appears that Cruise has halted production of its Origin autonomous vehicle after the California DMV pulled its license, Forbes reported. In an all-hands meeting with employees, Vogt, referring to the DMV license withdrawal, stated that "because a lot of this is in flux, we did make the decision with GM to pause production of the Origin," according to audio from the meeting. A GM spokesperson later confirmed to Engadget that "We are finishing production on a small number of pre-commercial vehicles and after that, plan to temporarily pause production."

Cruise is still operating its AVs in California, but now must have a human backup driver at the wheel. Meanwhile, California says it has given Cruise a path back to driverless operation “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,” it said in a statement.

Update, November 7 2023, 12:44PM ET: A statement from GM has been added confirming the pause.

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The collision that started all of this occurred on October 2 when a pedestrian was thrown into the path of a Cruise robotaxi after being hit by a human driver. The robotaxi tried to brake aggressively and pull over to the side of the road, but ended up dragging the pedestrian 20 feet before finally stopping.

This triggered a federal probe and several independent investigations into the company, which dredged up some unsavory data. For instance, reports indicate that Cruise’s algorithm had real trouble identifying children. The data also suggests that Cruise knew about this incredibly dangerous blind spot but still kept its vehicles on the streets.

Internal safety documents acquired by The Intercept state that “Cruise AVs may not exercise additional care around children,” and that the robotaxis may “need the ability to distinguish children from adults so we can display additional caution around.” The company responded by touting its safety features, writing in a statement that it has “the lowest risk tolerance for contact with children.”

All of that’s moot now, as Cruise’s robotaxis are being recalled. GM and Cruise have not issued statements as to when and if the cars would return to the streets. GM did announce, however, that it has already lost $1.9 billion on the venture through September of this year, as reported by CNBC.

Rival companies like Google-owned Waymo are still operating driverless vehicles in California and beyond. As a matter of fact, the company just doubled the service area for its robotaxis in San Francisco and Phoenix.

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