The October 2023 pedestrian-dragging robotaxi incident continues to haunt GM autonomous vehicle (AV) subsidiary Cruise, as the enterprise confesses to submitting a false report about the episode in an effort to favorably color the findings of the government inquiry.
Reuters reports that Cruise has agreed to pay half a million dollars as a fine for proffering the false report, along with agreeing to a three-year plan to aid in the government investigation in lieu of receiving criminal prosecution.
Other provisions of the agreement require Cruise to submit yearly reports on its safety measures and findings, as well as establishing “a safety compliance program” at the behest of the San Francisco U.S. Attorney’s Office. GM also paid the injured pedestrian approximately $8 million in a separate settlement.
Martha Boersch, a member of the Office, stated that “companies with self-driving cars that seek to share our roads and crosswalks must be fully truthful in their reports to their regulators.” In addition to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the NHTSA also have open investigations into Cruise.
The $500,000 penalty comes on top of $1.5 million already paid to the NHTSA for incomplete disclosure of the events around the pedestrian accident. Multiple smaller fines and penalties have also been assessed to GM’s AV subsidiary and paid, meaning that, along with the aforementioned $8 million settlement, Cruise has now coughed up in excess of $10 million over the dragging case.
Now under new leadership and with a considerable chunk of its workforce also laid off and replaced, Cruise has relaunched supervised rides in a limited number of locations. It hopes to start charging fares again in early 2025. GM CEOÂ Mary Barra also says she remains determined to launch a fully autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals.
Craig Glidden
Craig Glidden, the new president of Cruise, responded to the latest $500,000 fine by saying the robotaxi subsidiary “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.”
Comments
This is probably only the tip of the iceberg.
Should be much more.
That is insane. They are lucky to not have been totally shut down.
But who will ever trust them again?
If GM was smart, they would be the first Legacy Automaker to license FSD from Tesla
9 out of 10 people who win a Million Dollars or more in the Lottery are broke 5 years later. If you are stupid before you come into a fortune you will still be stupid after.
So what was the lie ?
…. or you can call Uber and give an out of work American a job.
From what I had readI it was an unfortunate accident of a pedestrian being hit by another vehicle and thrown under the Cruise as it passed by. The unfortunate pedestrian was dragged under the Cruise vehicle thankfully surviving. Please correct me if I am wrong. I guess the Cruise programmers never anticipated this scenario.
Never-the-less, how does Tesla avoid these fines and scrutiny with their overrated self driving mode accident history? How many casualties has this technology caused while additionally fleecing and endangering their buyers out of a ton of money?
I just don’t understand our legal system.