The GM’s Cruise didn’t share key information during the Robot Car Crash Investigation
The Fall of the Cruise Pedestrian in California: A State Law Firm Investigates a 2016 Incident Driven by a Loss of a Cruiser
The incident led to the departure of a number of executives, including co- founders Kyle and Dan Kan. The company stopped its operations nationwide, appointed a new safety officer, and recalled all of its vehicles. Nearly a quarter of Cruise employees have been laid off as GM pulls back on some of the company’s funding.
The law firm did not think Cruise lied to regulators. The report states that Cruise tried to play a full video that showed the pedestrian being dragged, but internet issues prevented the video from playing. And instead of pointing out the video’s significance, “Cruise employees remained silent, failing to ensure that the regulators understood what they likely could not see.”
The law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, was hired by Cruise to determine whether its executives misled regulators in the aftermath of the October 2nd incident in which a hit-and-run driver struck a pedestrian, knocking her into the path of a driverless Cruise vehicle. Its conclusions were detailed in a nearly 200-page report that was released today.
In response to the crash, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s license to operate its vehicles in the state. The company had been accused of withholding portions of the video that showed its vehicle dragging the person to the curb in an attempt to pull over. Cruise denies the allegation, claiming it showed the agency the whole video.
Cruise, the self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors, tried to send a 90-second video to regulators of an incident in which one of its driverless cars dragged a pedestrian 20 feet but was hampered by “internet connectivity issues,” according to a report compiled by a law firm investigating the incident.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US Department of Justice, and the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission are among the entities that are investigating the company. Cruise said it is “fully cooperating” with the regulatory and enforcement agencies that have opened the investigations.
