GM's Cruise initiates increased testing of robotaxis in Phoenix
Cruise has begun testing its autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, with plans to start supervised driving in the city over six months after the GM self-driving subsidiary ceased its driverless operations across the United States.
Cruise announced on Monday in a blog post that it will commence testing two vehicles in autonomous mode on public roads in metro Phoenix. A human safety operator will be present at the wheel during this testing phase. In addition, eight Cruise autonomous vehicles will still be manually operated in the area. Cruise is prioritizing the validation of the technology according to predetermined safety and AV performance standards. The company referred to this phase as a critical validation stage and will gradually extend testing to other Phoenix suburbs, including Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, and Chandler.
This week, we’re excited to begin supervised autonomous driving in Phoenix. During this phase, our cars drive autonomously, with a safety driver behind the wheel to monitor and take over if needed. Safety continues to be the defining principle for everything we do, and supervised…
— cruise (@Cruise) May 13, 2024
The announcement on Monday signifies a small yet significant step in Cruise's endeavor to move beyond the October 2 incident in San Francisco, where a pedestrian was trapped beneath and then dragged by one of its robotaxis. This incident, in conjunction with the company's response, led California regulators to suspend Cruise's deployment and driverless testing permits, effectively ending its robotaxi operations in the state where the majority of its activities took place.
Shortly after, Cruise temporarily halted all operations, including testing in Austin and Miami. In an effort to rebuild trust, the company replaced senior leaders, populated its board with GM executives, and engaged the law firm Quinn Emanuel to investigate the incident. Co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt resigned, and ultimately, 24% of the workforce was laid off.
The review conducted by the firm, unveiled in January, determined that Cruise did not intentionally deceive regulators. Instead, lapses in judgment, leadership errors, an adversarial relationship with regulators, and a fixation on rectifying the misconstrued narrative that the Cruise AV, rather than the human-driven Nissan, caused the accident, all contributed to Cruise's difficulties, according to the 195-page report.
