general motors Cruise’s self-driving fleet will redeploy its vehicles to U.S. roads Tuesday for the first time since October, starting with a small fleet of human-drivers in Phoenix. the company said.
The restart comes after the company ceased operations several weeks later after a pedestrian was struck by another vehicle and dragged 20 feet by a cruise robotaxi in San Francisco on Oct. 2.
The redeployed vehicles will not function as “robotaxis” as before, but will “create maps and collect road information in select cities starting in Phoenix,” the company said.
Cruise said its “goal is to resume driverless operations,” but did not provide a timeline. Nor did it announce a schedule for expanding human-driven vehicles to other cities.
“We have not yet committed to where or when we will begin supervised or driverless operations,” a spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
Still, the company said the relaunch of the vehicle with a human driver was “an important step in validating autonomous driving systems as we work toward a return to driverless missions.”
“In October 2023, we will suspend operations of our fleet as we focus on rebuilding trust with regulators and the communities we serve and redesigning our approach to safety. did.” Cruz said in a blog post.. “We have made significant progress through new company leadership, recommendations from third-party experts, and a focus on close partnerships with the communities where our vehicles operate. We will continue to work on this improvement as a continuous effort.”
An independent investigation into the October accident and its aftermath, conducted at the behest of GM and Cruise, found cultural issues, incompetence and poor leadership at the heart of the regulatory oversight that led to the accident. It has been found. The investigation also looked into allegations of a cover-up by Cruise’s leadership, but found no evidence to support those claims.
Cruise said in January that it “accepts” the report’s conclusions. The San Francisco-based company, in which GM owns about 80%, said it would act on “all” recommendations and “fully cooperate” with investigations by state and federal agencies following the Oct. 2 accident. He said he is doing so.
The company announced in January that investigations into the incident include investigations by the California DMV, the California Public Utilities Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Before the accident, Cruise had planned to aggressively expand robotaxis outside of its domestic market, where the majority of its vehicles operate.
In addition to shutting down operations, Cruise’s management team was also gutted. Co-founders, including CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt, resigned and nine other leaders were ousted. The venture also laid off his 24% of employees and contractors.