GM's Cruise robotaxi service faces potential fine in alleged cover-up of San Francisco accident
California regulators allege that a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up an accident involving one of its self-driving cars, raising the specter that they could add a fine to its recent California license suspension.
The potential fine for GM's Cruise service could be about $1.5 million, based on documents filed late last week by the California Public Utilities Commission.
The notice orders Cruise to appear at a Feb. 6 hearing to determine whether the robotaxi service misled regulators about what happened after one of its self-driving cars encountered a pedestrian who had already been hit by another vehicle driven by a man was piloted on the evening of October 2 in San Francisco.
The February hearing comes just six months after the commission allowed Cruise's robotaxi service to charge passengers for 24-hour rides around San Francisco, despite sharp objections from city officials who warned the self-driving cars were defective.
Three weeks after Cruise's accident on October 2, the California Department of Motor Vehicles effectively shut down the robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.
The suspension was a major blow to Cruise and its parent company GM, which suffered huge losses while developing the self-driving service that should generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it expands beyond San Francisco.
After losing nearly $6 billion since late 2019, Cruise has pivoted as it works to address the fallout from the Oct. 2 accident, which seriously injured the pedestrian struck and led to the recent resignation of CEO and fellow founder Kyle, to keep it under control. Vogt.
Without directly addressing the potential fine, GM CEO Mary Barra said Monday that October's crash helped the automaker learn more about the need for transparency and a better relationship with regulators.
“We're very focused on righting the ship here because this is technology that can make the way we get from point A to point B safer,” Barra told a gathering of automotive media.
Barra also pointed to Cruise's management overhaul, including a reorganization of its government relations and legal teams, as signs of progress. “We think we can do things more effectively,” she said.
Cruise pledged in its own statement to respond to the Public Utilities Commission's concerns “in a timely manner.” The company has already hired an outside law firm to review its response to the Oct. 2 accident.
The most serious questions about the incident concern Cruise's handling of a video showing a robotaxi named “Panini” dragging the pedestrian for six meters before coming to a stop.
In a December 1 filing detailing Cruise's handling of revelations about the accident, the Public Utilities Commission alleged that the company tried to conceal how its robotaxi responded to the accident for more than two weeks.
Cruise did not provide the video footage until October 19, according to the regulatory filing. The cover-up lasted 15 days, according to the PUC, exposing Cruise and GM to potential fines of $100,000 per day, or $1.5 million.
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AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this story.