California DMV suspends Cruise self-driving taxis, effective immediately

Key Points

• 🚗 The California DMV has suspended Cruise’s self-driving taxis in San Francisco after a pedestrian was hit by one of the company’s vehicles.
• 🛑 The suspension is immediate, and there is no set timeline for the decision.
• 🚦 Cruise can still test its self-driving vehicles with a safety driver for free or paid rides.
• 📢 Both the NHTSA and DMV are investigating the accident involving the Cruise taxi and the pedestrian.
• 🚨 The decision to suspend was made due to concerns about public safety.
• 🚖 Cruise previously received approval to operate driverless taxis in San Francisco 24/7 but was required to reduce its fleet size following accidents.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has required Cruise to halt all operations of its driverless taxis in San Francisco after one of the company’s vehicles hit a pedestrian earlier this month.

Cruise’s self-driving suspension is effective immediately, and the DMV says that it doesn’t have a set timeline for the decision, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle. The DMV says it decided to suspend Cruise’s self-driving taxis after the agency determined that “the manufacturer’s vehicles are not safe for the public’s operation.”

The suspension will not fully ban Cruise’s operations, and the company will still be able to test operations with a safety driver present for free or paid rides. The ban comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the DMV both announced investigations into an accident in which a Cruise taxi hit a pedestrian.

“Public safety remains the California DMV’s top priority, and the department’s autonomous vehicle regulations provide a framework to facilitate the safe testing and deployment of this technology on California public roads,” the DMV said in a statement. “When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits.”

Earlier this month, a Cruise self-driving taxi hit and pinned a pedestrian that had been struck by two other vehicles, causing multiple traumatic injuries. The Cruise taxi immediately stopped and its hazard lights turned on, and the San Francisco Fire Department was deployed to lift the vehicle off the woman.

In August, the General Motors-owned Cruise and Alphabet-owned Waymo gained approval to operate driverless taxis in San Francisco 24 hours a day. Following two Cruise accidents in the city, authorities required the company to cut its fleet in half.