California regulators have banned Cruise’s self-driving vehicles from state roads. This is a blow to the General Motors owned company, less than three month after they won the right for a robotaxi service.
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles announced that the company’s vehicles were “not safe” for public use. It also revoked Cruise’s permits to test or deploy their vehicles on public roads. The California Department of Motor Vehicles said Cruise’s suspension was due to a rule that governs when a manufacturer misrepresents information about the safety of their vehicles.
Cruise’s fully-autonomous cars, based upon GM’s Chevrolet Bolt model, have become a familiar site on San Francisco’s streets, especially in the evenings when the company operates a fleet 300 vehicles.
Early August, the California Public Utility Commission granted Waymo and GM, Alphabet’s autonomous car company, permission to operate full scale driverless taxi services in San Francisco, without restrictions.
The DMV then announced that it was investigating a number accidents involving Cruise vehicles, and ordered them to immediately halve their fleet. The incidents included an accident between a Cruise car, and a Fire truck. Cruise claimed that its car was able to detect the truck coming from behind and braked, but it could not prevent a crash.
California’s August decision to allow fully driverless cabs to roam San Francisco streets was made despite the widespread opposition of city officials and groups representing public interests. Critics claimed that the cars with no human behind the wheel hadn’t been extensively tested to remove all restrictions from the city. The critics also cited earlier incidents where autonomous cars had blocked emergency vehicles and presented a safety risk.
The DMV stated that it has the right to suspend or revoke a permit “immediately” if they determine “there is a unreasonable risk to public security”. They also said there was no “set time for suspension”. Cruise did not respond immediately to a comment request.