Cruise is in hot water after trying to downplay that nasty robotaxi accident in October. You know, the one where the driverless car dragged a pedestrian 20 feet. Now the feds are investigating and public trust is tanking.
Cruise finally came clean about the probe by the Justice Department and SEC in a blog post this week. But they still didn’t mention how the victim is doing, which is pretty messed up.
This spells trouble for parent company GM too. CEO Mary Barra has defended pouring over $8 billion into the Cruise robotaxi unit. But with fines and suspensions piling up, she’s facing renewed doubts about the whole program.
See, a law firm’s 195-page report found Cruise deliberately made it harder for regulators to assess the incident’s severity. Over 100 execs knew details before talks with officials.
In response, GM called the actions “inconsistent with the company’s values.” No kidding! Cruise threw its own team under the bus, blaming “inexperience” in dealing with media and the government.
But experts aren’t buying it. One called them “egregious” for knowing they misled people without correcting it. That’s why California suspended their robotaxi permit in December – and could slap Cruise with $1.5 million in penalties.
Cruise did go into damage control mode. Nine execs got fired, the CEO and a founder resigned, and layoffs cut staff 25%.
Still, this hands ammunition to critics pushing to halt all autonomous car rollouts nationally until safety is assured. Trust needs to be earned back.
Look, the tech has potential to save lives if done responsibly. But right now, between misleading officials and glitchy software harming people, public confidence is shattered.
For Cruise and robotaxis to have a future, full transparency and accountability for mistakes is a must. No more hiding behind lawyers or PR spin.
