The preliminary investigation by U.S. automobile safety regulators into GM’s Cruise robotaxi program is now concluded without any further actions being taken.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched this investigation in October 2023 to assess if the vehicles equipped with Cruise’s Automated Driving System (ADS) were appropriately cautious around pedestrians. This evaluation followed two reports of pedestrian-related accidents, as well as additional public incidents where the Cruise ADS vehicles approached pedestrians in crosswalks without adequate caution.
General Motors acquired a controlling stake in the San Francisco-based Cruise automation in 2016. A significant incident occurred on October 2, 2023, when a Cruise robotaxi was involved in an accident, dragging a pedestrian along a San Francisco street. This prompted Cruise to pause all driverless operations across the nation after California regulators determined that their vehicles posed a safety threat. Consequently, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the operating license for Cruise, which had been transporting passengers in a fully autonomous manner throughout San Francisco.
The NHTSA reported that it evaluated 2,759 incident reports linked to Cruise, including 1,113 pertaining to “pedestrian conflict.” Among these, five incidents involved actual collisions between a Cruise vehicle and a pedestrian, resulting in three injuries overall. The agency explained that in each of these five collision scenarios, while the Cruise vehicle attempted to take evasive action, it ultimately could not prevent the crash.
In response to concerns, Cruise issued a safety recall in November 2023 due to a flaw found in its ADS software. The NHTSA indicated that this recall aimed to rectify safety defects and specified that Cruise has since halted its business operations, with no versions of its ADS currently participating in public road use.
Although the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) decided to close its preliminary evaluation, the NHTSA stated that it maintains the authority to initiate further actions if new developments arise. Recently, GM announced plans to withdraw from the robotaxi market and cease financial support for its unprofitable Cruise autonomous vehicle division.
At that time, the Detroit-based company indicated it would integrate Cruise’s technical team with its own to focus on developing advanced driver assistance systems.
Following this announcement, shares of General Motors increased by approximately 2.5% during morning trading on Wednesday, coinciding with a broader market uptick.
