The state Department of Motor Vehicles today, via a terse statement, announced it is suspending the license for Cruise to operate driverless vehicles, “effective immediately.”
Today’s move comes on the heels of a litany of inconvenient or dangerous events involving autonomous vehicles compiled by San Francisco public safety officials, and an Oct. 2 incident in which a Cruise robotaxi hit and pinned a pedestrian who’d been struck by a hit-and-run driver.
“When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits,” reads the release. “There is no set time for a suspension.”
The DMV listed four criteria for today’s move, including allegations that “the manufacturer’s vehicles are not safe for the public’s operation” and “the manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.”
Per the orders underlying today’s edict (which you can read here and here), the DMV accuses Cruise of failing to disclose that, after its vehicle ran over the pedestrian on Oct. 2, the car “attempted to perform a pullover maneuver,” dragging the injured person 20 feet at a speed of 7 mph. The DMV claims Cruise did not initially disclose this information nor hand over video, and it only learned of this “via discussion with another government agency.” Cruise, the DMV decision stated, belatedly turned over video of the pedestrian being dragged 20 feet on Oct. 13.
Cruise disputes the DMV’s allegations, stating that Department of Motor Vehicles personnel were shown “the complete video multiple times” on Oct. 3, and were sent a copy of the video they’d already viewed on Oct. 13.
Today’s move does not affect other autonomous vehicle companies, such as Waymo.
“We learned today at 10:30 am PT of the California DMV’s suspension of our driverless permits,” read a statement from Cruise. “As a result, we will be pausing operations of our driverless AVs in San Francisco.
“Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives. In the incident being reviewed by the DMV, a human hit-and-run driver tragically struck and propelled the pedestrian into the path of the AV. The AV braked aggressively before impact and, because it detected a collision, it attempted to pull over to avoid further safety issues. When the AV tried to pull over, it continued before coming to a final stop, pulling the pedestrian forward. Our thoughts continue to be with the victim as we hope for a rapid and complete recovery.”
The state Public Utilities Commission granted Waymo and Cruise full and unfettered access to San Francisco on Aug. 10, in order to run driverless taxi services. Just eight days later, however, the DMV ordered Cruise to halve its San Francisco driverless fleet following a series of “concerning incidents,” including a platoon of Cruise vehicles conking out simultaneously in North Beach and creating a traffic bottleneck, and a fire rig slamming into a Cruise vehicle that had stopped at a green light, injuring its passenger.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu has formally requested the PUC reconsider its decision. While city observers doubt the state body will reverse itself, such a move is a necessary precursor to exhausting all administrative options and potentially filing a lawsuit.
Coincidentally, as the DMV was handing down its decision on Cruise, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, constituted as the County Transportation Authority, was holding a hearing on safety incidents involving autonomous vehicles.
“Better late than never,” texted Board President Aaron Peskin from the meeting. “San Francisco has long held that Cruise vehicles were not ready for prime time, and the state should never have allowed their unlimited deployment in the first place. It’s a full, albeit late, vindication of San Francisco’s position.”
Also coincidentally, the Teamsters were holding demonstrations today against Cruise in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Some 70 Teamsters gathered at Cruise parking lot at 333 Brannan St. this morning. Cruise, which got wind of the protest, had emptied its cars out of the lot overnight.
“Bang, bang! Right after our rally this morning!” said Tony Delorio, the principal officer of the Teamsters’ Local No. 665 regarding the DMV’s decision. “First and foremost, I don’t feel the need to applaud the DMV. We have been lobbying them for months. The writing is on the wall. The incidents have not stopped, and even when the DMV immediately took half of Cruise’s fleet off the road, the incidents continued. They are not ready for prime time.”
In addition to safety matters, Delorio said that robotaxis are clearly just a beachhead for Cruise et al. to come after package delivery services, leading to the potential evisceration of good-paying jobs at outfits like UPS, DHL or even the postal service.
“The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction,” reads the DMV’s statement. “This decision does not impact the company’s permit for testing with a safety driver.”
Cruise did not answer direct questions regarding the steps needed to remedy its position with the DMV.
Is anyone surprised to see regulators fail in their duty to protect? They assumed these were safe based on corporate propaganda, and wait for tragedies before they act.
It doesn’t help that they have a terrible PR Department. Every statement I’ve seen from them has been defensive and unapologetic. It’s like a stubborn 4 year old writes their press releases. Vogt’s statements were just petulant.
Like their continuous blathering about how awful human beings are compared to robots. If you listen to Cruise, you’d think we’re all just a bunch of drunks and careless lunatics. They paid thousands of dollars to tell everyone they think “humans are terrible drivers”.
So now we learn that the person was dragged 20 feet while the Cruise car tried to pull over. Props to the DMV for digging this up and handing down a proper adjustment to Cruise’s “fake it ’til you make it” attitude. Can’t wait for Tesla getting a haircut over “Autopilot” as well.
Did you know you can file complaints here: https://www.sfmta.com/about-us/contact-us/regulated-emerging-mobility-comments
You can file retroactively.
Please don’t let up. Way More needs to be done to send these companies packing–for overloading Phoenix. (Let’s Rise Up From Our Ass(h)es!)
I’m seeing Cruise cars driving without a driver out my window right now. Seems to just be around the Dog Patch.
Yesterday, as I crossed Sacaramento at Montgomery, a Cruise vehicle ran a red light nearly hitting me. Yeah, time is now to suspend driverless cars…
Yes, and beyond being time to do this. There should never have been blanket approval by the State to begin with.
I was in SF the week before last and observed a Waymo vehicle that needed to go around a double-parked vehicle in a multi-lane situation. I was basically next to its tail end in the left lane. It slowed a bit, as did I, but there was no signal used to indicate it was moving partically into my lane. Since this was the first time I observed such a thing I have no idea if this is perhaps a more common problem? Do they properly signal, or not? I certainly see enough live drivers fail to do this on a regular basis. The creators of these AI systems purport that they do these thing better.