The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the Cruise robotaxi service owned by General Motors in San Francisco after concluding that its driverless cars put passengers' public safety at risk.
The police and fire officials reported that driverless cars have increased traffic in emergencies since its testing phase.
DMV Suspends Cruise's Operation License
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MARCH 28: An Uber self-driving car drives down 5th Street on March 28, 2017 in San Francisco, California. Cars in Uber's self-driving cars are back on the roads after the program was temporarily halted following a crash in Tempe, Arizona on Friday.
Cruise has been forced to stop its operation as DMV stated that Cruise's robotaxis poses a risk to public safety. The DMV said that the suspension follows a series of incidents that raised concerns about the hazards and inconveniences caused by Cruise's robotaxis.
According to U.S News, even before the suspension of Cruise, a pod of vehicles had rapidly stopped and blocked traffic on a Friday night in San Francisco. The DMV said that Cruise was linked to an incident this month. The robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been hit by another vehicle operated by a human and then pinned the pedestrian under one of its tires after coming to a stop.
According to ABC News, Cruise has confirmed that its operations have ceased but will be able to operate its vehicles in autonomous mode. The robotaxi will be driven by a human, sitting in the driver's seat to take control whenever something goes wrong.
The California suspension disappointed GM and its ambitious goals for Cruise, which the Detroit automaker speculated would produce $1 billion in revenue by 2025. The gain is a big leap from Cruise's payment of $106 million last year, when it also lost nearly $2 billion.
While Cruise has been suspended in San Francisco, another robotaxi operated by Waymo has an ongoing operation throughout the city. As reported in AP News, Waymo started as a secret project within Google more than a decade ago in Phoenix for the past three years.
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GM CEO Responds to the Suspension
GM CEO Mary Barra said that Cruise is a significant breakthrough in the future of transportation.
"As Cruise continues to push the boundaries and what AV technology can deliver to society, safety is always at the forefront, and this is something they are continuously improving," Barra said.
She added that they are cooperating with the state and federal regulators in investigating the accident this month involving a robotaxi named "Panini." The incident caused a critically injured pedestrian who was pulled out under the robotaxi with the help of a rescue tool before being taken to a local hospital.
Cruise confirmed that they are further examining the incident and working on a way for their robotaxis to improve its response to this rare event.
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