On 14 December 2023, autonomous automobile (AV) developer Cruise introduced it was slicing 900 jobs, roughly 25% of its workforce. It was the newest in a collection of damaging occasions for the GM-owned firm, together with the dismissal of 9 executives, following an ongoing investigation right into a San Francisco site visitors incident that occurred on 2 October. Having already been struck by one other automobile, a pedestrian was then dragged 20 ft by a Cruise robotaxi.
Cruise suspended its US operations on 26 October and introduced it will cooperate with authorities investigating the matter. Nonetheless, on 1 December, the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) accused it of “deceptive the Fee” and “making deceptive public feedback relating to its interactions with the Fee.” The CPUC contends Cruise omitted particulars that its AV was engaged in a pullover manoeuvre through the incident.
In September, throughout The Autonomous 2023, Carter Stern, Director of International Affairs at Cruise, opined that AVs may very well be a power for growing street security—a steadily cited profit amongst adherents. However may reactions to the controversy finally have damaging repercussions for the whole sector?
