GM’s Cruise Recalls All Cars, Stops Production In Wake Of Pedestrian Accident
Cruise, the autonomous car ride-hailing company run by General Motors, has issued a recall on nearly 1,000 of its self-driving cars to update their software following an investigation into a tragic pedestrian accident in San Francisco that one of them was involved in.
On October 2, another vehicle hit a pedestrian and knocked them into the path of a Cruise, which ran over them and stopped in the middle of the road. The vehicle then pulled over to the side, dragging the pedestrian, who survived with serious injuries, with it.
The Chevrolet Bolt-based electric cars are programmed to move out of traffic, when possible, after an incident, but the car failed to detect the pedestrian caught underneath it.
Cruise says that the update addresses the issue in this type of accident, which had a chance of happening once every 10-100 million miles driven, according to the company’s analysis.
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“In addition to our cooperation with investigations from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), we have hired an independent, third-party engineering firm to perform a technical root cause analysis of the October 2 incident. We will incorporate their findings into our safety and engineering processes,” the company said in a statement.
The Cruise ride-hailing service is still in operation, but only with safety drivers on-board. The driverless service that was involved in the accident remains paused. It’s fully driverless vehicles are monitored and can be controlled remotely when unexpected incidents arise.
General Motors this week also suspended production of the Cruise Origin, which is designed without any human controls, at its Factory Zero facility in Michigan. Cruise has been working toward incorporate them into its fleets, which are in operation in several cities, as regulations allow. General Motors has not said specifically why production was idled.
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Cruise last week announced that it had reached an agreement with Honda to launch its service in Japan using the Origin in 2026.
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