The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has asked Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors, to temporarily reduce the number of its autonomous vehicles operating in San Francisco following “recent concerning incidents” involving the fleet.
One of the incidents involved a collision between a Cruise robotaxi and a fire truck at an intersection. The fire truck had its sirens and lights activated while responding to an emergency, and the robotaxi had passengers on board who sustained non-life-threatening injuries. In another incident, a Cruise vehicle became stuck in wet concrete.
As a result of these incidents, the DMV requested that Cruise reduce its autonomous vehicle fleet by half while investigations are carried out. During the daytime, Cruise will be limited to operating 50 autonomous vehicles, and at night, the limit will be 150 vehicles.
The DMV stated that its primary focus is on the safety of autonomous vehicles and the public sharing the road with them. It also noted that it has the authority to suspend or revoke testing and deployment permits if it deems a company’s vehicles to be a threat to public safety.
In response, Cruise explained that its robotaxi identified the emergency vehicle and its sirens, but it had difficulty predicting the fire truck’s path as it moved into the oncoming lane of traffic to bypass a red light. Cruise’s autonomous vehicle hit the brakes to reduce speed but could not completely avoid the collision due to the conditions.
These incidents occurred shortly after the California Public Utilities Commission voted in favor of allowing Cruise and Waymo to charge fares for fully driverless rides at any time of the day in San Francisco. Previously, such rides were only allowed without a safety driver onboard in limited areas of the city between 10 PM and 6 AM. A commissioner who voted against the expansion expressed concerns about the impact on first responders and the need for further evaluation.
