Federal regulators have launched a second investigation into the autonomous driving systems used by the rideshare company Cruise. They say that the systems “may not have exercised appropriate caution” around pedestrians.
Right now, Cruise operates in San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin — and they hope to launch their service in Dallas before the end of the year.
According to the notice filed by the Office of Defects Investigation, the agency received reports of Cruise vehicles “encroaching on pedestrians” and the autonomous vehicles could “increase the risk of a collision…which may result in severe injury or death.”
The department says the investigation stems from two reports of Cruise vehicle incidents that resulted in pedestrian injuries — and two other incidents “with videos posted to public websites.”
In December 2022, the National Highway Traffic Administration opened an investigation into reports that Cruise vehicles “may engage in inappropriately hard braking.”
The administration said at the time it has been told of multiple incidents where Cruise vehicles were “immobilized” — and became “unexpected obstacles” in the road and left riders stranded.
KERA reached out to Cruise to ask for comment about the federal investigation and whether it would delay the company’s roll out of the service in Dallas.
Cruise did not respond to comment before this story was published.
Just last week, Cruise executives briefed the city’s Public Safety committee about the service. The presentation started by letting the committee know that the city can’t regulate the rideshare company, according to a new law.
“Against this backdrop, Cruise has been collaboratively reaching out to us,” Department of Transportation Director Gus Khankarli said at the meeting. “They started that outreach a couple of months ago.”
Khankarli says city staffers met with Cruise executives to basically figure out how Cruise could best implement their service in the city. That resulted in training for city staff and Dallas first responders.
But some council members raised questions about the safety of the vehicles — before the investigation was launched.
“How often is a Cruise vehicle involved in a collision?” District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn asked during last week’s meeting.
Yariel Diaz, a government affairs manager with the company, says there’s been 20 “incidents” in the state of Texas since November 2022.
“Those are all specific to Austin where our current operations are,” Diaz said at the meeting.
And he says Cruise teams are responsible for responding to any incidents where a vehicle may be not functioning properly — like blocking an intersection — within minutes.
“I’m not sure how you’re going to respond in minutes in Dallas,” Mendelsohn said. “We’re a very big city, we’re very spread out.”
Diaz says the briefing presented last week was missing a map that showed exactly where the Cruise vehicles would be operating – but it wouldn’t be the whole city.
Mendelsohn wanted to know more about what kind of data is kept on people who use the service, how well the sensor technology works — and who law enforcement writes the ticket to, if the vehicle is pulled over.
But those answers have yet to come in.
As of Thursday, no memo answering the council members’ questions has been submitted.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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