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GM’s robot car unit Cruise to be fined over fake accident report

Harry November 16, 2024

Trisha Thadani
| Washington Post

Autonomous vehicle developer Cruise LLC admitted on Thursday that it withheld key details about the horrific 2023 crash “with the intent to obstruct, impede, or influence” a federal investigation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. The company, owned by General Motors Co., will pay $500,000 to resolve criminal charges.

Cruise also must implement a security compliance program and submit annual compliance reports to the U.S. attorney’s office as part of the agreement, the Justice Department said.

Cruise had previously been ordered to pay a $1.5 million fine by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; That administration also found that the company deliberately concealed information about a crash that seriously injured a pedestrian who ran a red light in San Francisco last year. The company, once seen as a leader in autonomous driving, has faced a series of investigations after initially misrepresenting details of the October 2023 crash.

The incident occurred in San Francisco when a pedestrian jaywalking stepped into a busy intersection and was struck by a human-driven car. The pedestrian was thrown into the path of the self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle operated by Cruise after rolling onto the windshield. He survived but was seriously injured.

Footage of the accident, which Cruise first shared with the Washington Post, other media outlets and the California Department of Motor Vehicles, showed that the driverless vehicle stopped as soon as it contacted the pedestrian.

But the company’s initial report to NHTSA after the incident did not mention that the vehicle then began moving and “dragged the pedestrian” and was pulled for 20 feet on the ground, according to the agency’s warrant issued Monday.

“Federal laws and regulations are in place to protect public safety on our roads,” Martha Boersch, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, said in a statement. “Companies with driverless vehicles that want to share our roads and crosswalks must be completely honest in their reports to regulators.”

Cruise halted its driverless operations nationwide immediately after the crash. The company said it released a software update to its collision detection system responsible for the pedestrian entrainment and replaced leaders directly responsible for the company’s response, including former CEO Kyle Vogt.

Cruise has since resumed testing its technology under the supervision of humans in the driver’s seat in Phoenix, Dallas and Houston.