Driverless car update: Cruise suspended

We’ve been keeping you abreast of the ongoing effort to roll out thousands of driverless cars (also called “autonomous vehicles” or AVs) across our City despite the concerns of emergency responders and the Board of Supervisors.

Yesterday, the Department of Motor Vehicles suspended its authorization of Cruise, one of the two companies actively operating in the City. The DMV cited several sections of state motor vehicle regulations as the basis for the indefinite suspension:

Today’s suspensions are based on the following:

• 13 CCR §228.20 (b) (6) – Based upon the performance of the vehicles, the Department determines the manufacturer’s vehicles are not safe for the public’s operation.
• 13 CCR §228.20 (b) (3) – The manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.
• 13 CCR §227.42 (b) (5) – Any act or omission of the manufacturer or one of its agents, employees, contractors, or designees which the department finds makes the conduct of autonomous vehicle testing on public roads by the manufacturer an unreasonable risk to the public.
• 13 CCR §227.42 (c) – The department shall immediately suspend or revoke the Manufacturer’s Testing Permit or a Manufacturer’s Testing Permit – Driverless Vehicles if a manufacturer is engaging in a practice in such a manner that immediate suspension is required for the safety of persons on a public road.

CCR is the California Code of Regulations. Title 13 gives the regulations for motor vehicles; sections 227 and 228 are under article 3.7 (Testing of Autonomous Vehicles) and 3.8 (Deployment of Autonomous Vehicles), respectively.

Vice reports that what Cruise “misrepresented” was an incident in which a Cruise vehicle ran over a pedestrian while trying to stop, then tried to pull over and dragged the pedestrian in so doing. According to the DMV’s Order of Suspension:

The video footage presented to the department [by Cruise] ended with the AV’s initial stop following the hard-braking maneuver. Footage of the subsequent movement of the AV to perform a pullover maneuver was not shown to the department and Cruise did not disclose that any additional movement of the vehicle had occurred after the initial stop of the vehicle. The department only learned of the AV's subsequent movement via discussion with another government agency.

(This is also a good reminder that every driverless car is covered with surveillance cameras whose footage can—and, you must assume, will—be turned over to authorities.)

The DMV’s action pushes Cruise back several steps. Cruise was, by the DMV’s definitions, at the deployment stage: authorized to operate so-called “robotaxi” services with no human being supervising the actions of the car or its occupants. Now, Cruise will be required to have a human being in the driver’s seat, ready and able to take control of the vehicle, whenever their cars are on public roads.

So far, the DMV has only suspended its authorization of Cruise, not Waymo nor any of the other companies at various stages of the process in the state. The DMV’s announcement adds that “The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction.” What those steps are is not yet public.