Cruz’s driverless taxi service has been suspended in San Francisco

California regulators on Tuesday ordered Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, to halt its driverless taxi service in San Francisco after a series of traffic accidents, including one this month when a Cruise pulled a pedestrian 20 feet after… Its collision.

The decision by the state Department of Motor Vehicles came after a turbulent three months for Cruz. In early August, over the objections of officials in San Francisco, state regulators allowed Cruz to expand its services in the city. But just over a week later, the Department of Motor Vehicles asked Cruz to cut its fleet in the city in half.

On October 2, a pedestrian was struck by a car, then hit by Cruz’s car and pinned under the self-driving car. While trying to stop, Cruz’s vehicle pulled the pedestrian until it stopped. Cruz said her self-driving car “braked hard” and blamed the human driver for the accident.

In an initial meeting with Cruise after the October accident, the company showed footage from the car’s cameras that ended with the self-driving car coming to a complete stop after hitting the pedestrian, the DMV said. DMV officials later learned through “discussion with another government agency” that the pedestrian was also towed, according to the suspension order sent to Cruz.

Cruz said in a statement that he showed the agency “the full video multiple times.”

The suspension represents a major setback for Cruise, which began testing its self-driving cars in San Francisco several years ago and introduced limited driverless taxi service in the city last year.

It’s also an unwelcome development for the emerging driverless car industry. Major technology and auto companies have invested billions of dollars in the technology, and in recent months expensive cars have begun to gain some mainstream acceptance. The decision by California regulators may increase calls for federal regulators to take a closer look at the technology.

“When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits,” the agency said in a statement. He did not say how long the suspension would last.

in mail Cruise said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it will temporarily halt its self-driving operations in San Francisco and is working on improving the car’s technology. Cruise can still test its self-driving cars in California, but it must have safe drivers who can take over in an emergency.

On a call with financial analysts Tuesday morning before the government action, GM CEO Mary T. Barra said self-driving cars were involved in far fewer collisions than human drivers, but acknowledged regulatory concerns.

“We believe Cruz has tremendous opportunity for growth and expansion,” Ms. Parra said. “Safety will be our gateway factor as we do this.” She added confirmation that GM has plans to support Cruz’s expansion.

Ms. Barra also said GM will have more to say about Cruise when it reports fourth-quarter earnings in three months and in an all-day investor presentation expected in the first half of 2024. Cruise expenses were $700 million in the latest quarter report , according to the transcript of the call.

The Cruise vehicles have drawn significant criticism from local safety officials, who have complained that they have become a nuisance and get in the way of fighting fires and other emergencies. These complaints have increased in recent months, as Cruze vehicles have been involved in several high-profile accidents.

Shortly after another state regulator, the California Public Utilities Commission, allowed the service to expand, at least 10 cruise vehicles idled in the middle of a busy street in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, blocking traffic for a period of time. 15 minutes. A few days later, Cruz’s car entered a paving project in the city and got stuck in wet concrete.

The day before the DMV announced its investigation into Cruz’s safety record, a fire truck responding to an emergency call collided with a driverless Cruz taxi on Aug. 17, injuring a passenger in the vehicle.

Less than two weeks ago, Cruz said it released major updates to the software that powers its self-driving cars to help them interact with firefighters and other safety officials. These updates included the ability to control the car manually. Emergency responders had to call Cruise employees to control the cars remotely when they got in the way.

On October 16, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruz’s interactions with pedestrians, including the person who was pulled by Cruz’s vehicle. In a statement on Channel X, Cruz described the incident as an “extremely rare event.”

At a San Francisco County Transportation Authority hearing Tuesday morning, Aaron Peskin, chairman of the city’s Board of Supervisors, said the driverless car industry “is neither safe nor immune from any government regulatory oversight.”

“If there is any proof of San Francisco’s position, we just got it from the DMV today, albeit unfortunately somewhat late,” Mr. Peskin said.

As of Tuesday, Cruz had 50 driverless cars operating during the day and 150 at night.

Waymo, Cruise’s main competitor, will continue to operate its self-driving cars in San Francisco. Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has avoided high-profile incidents so far. A Waymo spokesperson declined to comment.

Matt Wansley, a professor at Cardozo Law School in New York who specializes in emerging automotive technologies, called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to determine whether Cruise service should also be suspended in other states where it is testing the same technology.

“If Cruise cars are unsafe in California, they should be unsafe in other states, too,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “There are inconsistent regulations across the country.”

While regulators and experts can easily point to accidents involving cruise vehicles that wouldn’t have happened if there had been a person behind the wheel, that wasn’t the case with Waymo’s cars, Mr. Wansley said.

“Companies should be judged by their performance in road safety, and there is a big difference between Cruise and Waymo,” he said.

Neil E. Beaudette He contributed reporting from Michigan.