(San Francisco) Californian authorities on Tuesday withdrew the autonomous vehicle company Cruise’s permit to operate its cars without a driver, after several accidents in San Francisco.
The California Motor Vehicle Agency (DMV) notified the General Motors subsidiary that it was “suspending Cruise’s autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permits, effective immediately,” according to a statement.
The DMV cites an “unreasonable risk to public safety”, and specifies that there is “no fixed deadline for suspension”.
Cruise can continue to test its vehicles with a safety driver.
“The DMV has provided Cruise with the necessary steps to request reinstatement of its suspended licenses, which the DMV will not approve until the company has completed the required conditions to the department’s satisfaction,” the statement further states. authority.
Earlier this month, in San Francisco, a self-driving Cruise car drove over a pedestrian who had just been hit by another vehicle, driven by a person. The victim was hospitalized in critical condition, according to firefighters, and Cruise said in a statement about the incident Tuesday that he “hopes she makes a full recovery.”
The subsidiary notes that “the human driver responsible for the accident has not been found”. “Safety is at the heart of everything we do at Cruise. We want to significantly reduce the number of people injured and killed each year on our roads,” Cruise emphasizes.
The company did not immediately respond to a request from the AFP about the suspension of its license.
Loaded with cameras and lidars (detection lasers), autonomous electric taxis from Waymo (Google) and Cruise (General Motors) have invested in San Francisco since last year, sparking increasingly intense debates on the progress that they bring and the risks they present.
In August, the California Transportation Agency granted permission to the two companies to expand their paid services in the city. But soon after, highway authorities asked Cruise to reduce its fleet in San Francisco by half (50 cars active during the day and 150 at night) while they investigated two collisions, including one with a fire truck.