A San Francisco robotaxi service under fire for allegedly covering up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars is facing a $1.5 million fine.
In October, a woman was hit by a car that knocked her into the path of a driverless Cruise car, which braked hard before colliding with her.
The robotaxi dragged her for 20 feet (6 meters) at a speed of seven miles per hour for 30 minutes while she screamed for help.
Based on court documents filed late on December 1 by the California Public Utilities Commission, General Motor’s Cruise service could be fined about $1.5 million if found guilty of a cover-up.
The company was issued a legal notice to appear in court on February 6, 2024 for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether they misled regulators about the incident.
Court documents recount how Cruise handled disclosures about the accident.
The Public Utilities Commission asserted the company tried to conceal how its robotaxi reacted to the accident for more than two weeks in the legal paperwork.
The documents allege Cruise’s concealment started with an October 3 phone call to a regulatory analyst who was told the robotaxi had come to an immediate stop upon impact with the pedestrian without mentioning the vehicle drove another 20 feet with the injured person still pinned down.
DNV officials requested additional footage from the company, which the company sent 10 days after the meeting.
The new footage showed that the car continued driving after the initial stop and attempted a ‘pullover maneuver,’ traveling about 20 feet while the pedestrian was still trapped underneath.
After seeing the video, the California Department of Motor Vehicles effectively shut down the robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.
This maneuver ‘increased the risk of, and may have caused, further injury to a pedestrian,’ the DMV wrote in a report.
