√US road safety regulator launches probe into autonomous taxis
General Motors-owned autonomous taxi company Cruise is being investigated by US road safety regulators after multiple reported incidents and injuries involving the driverless cars.
An autonomous vehicle business owned by General Motors is being probed by peak road safety regulators in the US after two people were injured in crashes allegedly caused by the car giant’s ‘robo taxis’.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a probe into autonomous taxi service Cruise, following two incidents where the company’s autonomous cars were rear-ended after suddenly and unexpectedly braking.
It’s the second high-profile probe into autonomous driving technology after it launched an investigation into Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems – marketed as ‘Autopilot’ – in August 2021, citing a number of incidents and at least one fatality.
Owned by General Motors – the former parent company of Holden – Cruise’s autonomous cars are based on the Chevrolet Bolt electric hatch and became available to the public as taxis in San Francisco in February this year, but it didn’t take long for problems to arise.
In April 2022, an empty Cruise autonomous car was filmed being pulled over by San Francisco police, driving off shortly after it was approached by a law enforcement officer.
In June 2022, a Cruise autonomous car turned across the path of another vehicle which was travelling at 15mph (24km/h) above the 25mph (40km/h) speed limit, leading to two injuries and a recall of 80 vehicles.
According to NHTSA probe, there have been three reports of Cruise autonomous cars braking unexpectedly when the vehicle’s systems detected a following car approaching closely from the rear.
While there was an occupant in the driver’s seat of the Cruise car in all three instances, they are deemed to be a supervisor, not the controller of the autonomous car.
The NHTSA probe also mentioned incidents of Cruise vehicles malfunctioning and becoming immobilised without supervision, presenting a greater danger to their passengers and other motorists.
In response to the probe, a Cruise spokesperson told news agency Reuters its vehicles have “driven nearly 700,000 fully autonomous miles in an extremely complex urban environment with zero life-threatening injuries or fatalities.
“There’s always a balance between healthy regulatory scrutiny and the innovation we desperately need to save lives, which is why we’ll continue to fully cooperate with NHTSA or any regulator in achieving that shared goal,” the Cruise spokesperson said, according to the report by news agency Reuters.
In September 2022, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said remote human input would remain crucial to the operation of the company’s autonomous vehicles – even if ‘Origin’, a driverless pod without a steering wheels and pedals, launches on time next year.
“I can provide my customers peace of mind knowing there is always a human there to help if needed,” Mr Vogt said. “I don’t know why I’d ever want to get rid of that.”
As reported in August 2022, General Motors has lost approximately $US5 million ($AU7.46 million) a day through its investment in Cruise, not including the initial buy-in cost of more than $US5 billion ($7.46 billion).
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