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Allegations have been made by California regulators against a San Francisco robotaxi service, a property of General Motors, for allegedly hiding the severity of an accident that occurred with one of its autonomous vehicles. This raises the possibility of them receiving a fine in addition to the recent suspension of their license in California.
Based on documents filed by the California public utilities commission last week, the potential penalty that GM’s Cruise service could face is approximately $1.5 million.
Cruise has been summoned to appear at an evidentiary hearing on 6 February to investigate whether they provided misleading information to regulators regarding the aftermath of the incident where one of their autonomous vehicles collided with a pedestrian who had already been hit by another vehicle driven by a human in San Francisco on the evening of 2 October.
This hearing in February follows just half a year after the commission granted authorization for Cruise’s robotaxi service to start offering paid rides 24/7 in San Francisco, despite strong objections from city officials who raised concerns about malfunctions in the autonomous vehicles.
Three weeks after the accident on 2 October involving Cruise, the California Department of Motor Vehicles halted the operations of the robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.
This suspension dealt a significant blow to Cruise and its parent company, GM, which suffered substantial losses during the development of the autonomous service that was anticipated to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it expanded beyond San Francisco.
Having incurred losses of nearly $6 billion since late 2019, Cruise has entered a phase of reevaluation as it works to manage the fallout from the 2 October incident, which resulted in critical injuries to the pedestrian and led to the recent resignation of Kyle Vogt, the CEO and co-founder of the company.
While not directly addressing the potential fine, GM’s CEO Mary Barra mentioned on Monday that the October crash had highlighted the importance of transparency and establishing a better rapport with regulators in the field of autonomous technology.
“Our primary focus is on rectifying the situation as this technology has the potential to enhance safety in transportation from one point to another,” stated Barra.
Barra also highlighted the restructuring of Cruise’s leadership, including the reorganization of their government relations and legal departments, as indicators of progress. “We believe there are more efficient ways to accomplish our goals,” she added.
In its response, Cruise assured that they would address the concerns of the public utility commission promptly. The company has engaged an external legal firm to scrutinize their handling of the 2 October incident.
The primary point of contention surrounding the incident revolves around Cruise’s handling of a video depicting a robotaxi named “Panini” dragging the pedestrian approximately 20 feet at a speed of 7mph before coming to a halt.
In a filing on 1 December detailing Cruise’s disclosure process regarding the incident, the commission alleged that the company attempted to hide how the robotaxi responded to the accident for over two weeks.
According to the regulatory filing, Cruise did not provide the video footage until 19 October, suggesting a cover-up that spanned 15 days and potentially exposing Cruise and GM to fines of $100,000 per day, totaling $1.5 million.
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