Cruise Recalls Autonomous Fleet

“General Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is recalling all 950 of its cars to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October,” reports Tom Krisher in the Detroit Free Press.

The company suspended operations of its driverless vehicles after the October 2 crash. “Cruise says in documents posted by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it already has updated software in test vehicles that are being supervised by human safety drivers. The driverless fleet will get the new software before resuming operations, the company says.” The company says it is adding a ‘chief safety officer’ and investing more in safety and transparency efforts.

The company was already under investigation for several other crashes that resulted in injuries to pedestrians. “Problems at Cruise could slow the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles that carry passengers without human drivers on board. It also could bring stronger federal regulation of the vehicles, which are carrying passengers in more cities nationwide.”