General Motors’ autonomous technology development company, Cruise, has agreed to temporarily cut its fleet of autonomous vehicles in San Francisco following a pair of crashes that occurred on the same night: Thursday, August 17.
“Cruise has agreed to a 50 percent reduction and will have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150 driverless vehicles in operation at night,” the California Department of Motor Vehicles said in a statement. “The DMV reserves the right, following the investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits if there is determined to be an unreasonable risk to public safety.”
The reduction in operations will stay in effect until the DMV’s investigation in complete, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The automaker will also have to “take appropriate corrective actions to improve safety” before it can resume full operations.
Read: Cruise Autonomous Car Gets Itself Stuck In Wet Cement
In one accident, Cruise indicates that its vehicle, a robotaxi based on a modified Chevrolet Bolt, was not to blame. The company says that its vehicle entered the intersection of 26th and Mission Streets with a green light when another vehicle that ran a red light collided with it. The autonomous vehicle had no passenger in it, while the driver of the other vehicle was treated and released at the scene.
The other incident is the cause of more concern for San Francisco authorities. In it, the Cruise AV entered the intersection at Polk and Turk streets, again with a green light. However, in this case, it failed to notice an emergency vehicle in time to stop, and a collision occurred.
Cruise says that its vehicle did hear the fire truck’s sirens and reacted to them, but claims that the intersection was tricky, and frequently catches human drivers out. However, in this case, a passenger was onboard when the collision occurred and was taken to hospital for “non-severe” injuries, the company stated.
“Our primary concern is the rider and their welfare, and we have reached out to offer support,” wrote Cruise. “We are also deeply mindful of the well-being of the first responders and any individuals affected by this incident.”
San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin claims that “there was an accident waiting to happen,” referring to the California Public Utilities Commission’s recent decision to allow Cruise and Waymo vehicles to operate more freely in the city – something that has rankled local politicians and emergency responders.
Cruise “should be expressing concern for San Francisco, San Franciscans and the passenger,” said Peskin, who has been a vocal critic of autonomous vehicles. “They are using our streets for their testing ground, you would hope they show a little more respect for our city.”
