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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The data breach was allegedly executed using compromised customer usernames and passwords, which exposed sensitive personal information that included things relevant to ancestry trees, birthdays and general geographic locations. In some cases, the company said that the hack could have exposed the pictures and display names of affiliated family members also using the company’s services through the accounts that were primarily breached. 23andMe insists that no actual genetic material or DNA records were exposed.

Legally, 23AndMe is obligated to inform all impacted customers and in October, 23andMe asked all of its users to reset their passwords. Last month, the company said it has required all new and existing users to login into the 23andMe website using two-step verification and that will remain the standard going forward. The emphasis on account security comes after the completion of an internal investigation, which 23andMe says was conducted with the help of third-party forensics experts but it has yet to release a report detailing their findings. The company did, however, say it expects to incur at least $1 to $2 million in expenses related to the hack.

23andMe does more than give customers reports about their family trees: It offers genetic health risk tests for chronic diseases and cancers, and it also has a research arm where customers can opt into clinical research programs. Questions about how 23andMe handles data privacy and protects its digital assets could impact the company’s bottom line and if customers shy away from using the services that involve more sensitive medical information.

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