California DMV is investigating a Cruise robotaxi’s collision with a fire truck

Cruise will quickly be deploying fewer autonomous automobiles in San Francisco whereas investigators are trying into “current regarding incidents” involving its fleet. In line with The New York Times and TechCrunch, the California Division of Motor Autos requested the corporate to chop its fleet in half after an incident whereby certainly one of Cruise’s robotaxis collided with a hearth truck at an intersection. The fireplace truck had its sirens and purple lights on and was responding to an emergency on the time, whereas the robotaxi has passengers onboard who sustained non-life-threatening accidents. In one other, maybe much less controversial, incident a number of days earlier than that, a Cruise car got stuck in wet concrete. 

The DMV stated in an announcement that its main focus is “the secure operation of autonomous automobiles and security of the general public who share the highway with these automobiles.” It additionally added that it “reserves the suitable, following investigation of the details, to droop or revoke testing and/or deployment permits” if it determines that an organization’s automobiles is a menace to public security. The company has requested Cruise to restrict its driverless automobiles in operation to 50 throughout daytime and 150 at evening, at the very least till the investigation is completed. 

In an explanation in regards to the collision posted on the corporate’s web site, Cruise’s Normal Supervisor for San Francisco, Greg Dietrerich, stated the robotaxi recognized the emergency car as quickly because it got here into view. It was additionally in a position to distinguish the hearth truck’s sirens “as quickly because it was distinguishable from the background noise.” Nonetheless, it wasn’t potential to see automobiles coming from across the nook “till they’re bodily very near the intersection” the place the incident occurred. Additional, the autonomous car had hassle predicting the hearth truck’s path, as a result of it moved into the “oncoming lane of visitors” to bypass a purple gentle. Dietrerich stated Cruise’s AV recognized the chance of a collision and hit the brake to scale back its velocity, but it surely wasn’t in a position to keep away from the crash fully as a result of these situations. 

The DMV’s request comes just some days after the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) voted in favor of permitting each Cruise and Waymo to cost fares for absolutely driverless rides any time of the day in San Francisco. Earlier than that, Cruise might solely provide fared rides with no security driver onboard in restricted areas of the town between 10PM and 6AM. The one commissioner who voted towards the businesses’ paid journey enlargement argued that the CPUC did not have sufficient data to precisely consider the impression of autonomous automobiles on first responders.