GM’s self-driving car division is under investigation by DOJ and SEC after pedestrian dragging incident
CNN
Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving vehicle unit, disclosed today that it is the subject of two federal investigations regarding its actions after a severe accident involving a Cruise “robotaxi.”
Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving vehicle unit, disclosed today that it is the subject of two federal investigations regarding its actions after a severe accident involving a Cruise “robotaxi.” In just the latest setback in the auto industry’s attempt to perfect driverless cars, the company is being investigated by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a Cruise blog post. An investigation and report commisioned by Cruise and GM and released today found no evidence that Cruise staffers or executives lied to or misled regulators about the 2023 accident involving a pedestrian, but that they also did not volunteer details about what happened. In meetings with regulators after the October 2 incident, Cruise officials attempted to show a full video of the impact, shot from the car. But “technical issues” prevented the regulators from seeing all of it clearly, according to the report. Cruise did not, then, point out to regulators the details of what actually happened. When California regulators found out, later, that a Cruise vehicle had dragged a woman 20 feet across the asphalt following the impact, causing grievous injuries, Cruise’s permits to test fully autonomous vehicles in California were suspended. Cruise later stopped all testing throughout the United States and has not resumed those operations.