The self-driving ride-share service Cruise, says it will “proactively pause driverless operations” across the entirety of their fleet in order to review policies and practices. That's after the company had been in talks with city officials to launch the service in Dallas before the end of the year.
The company said on X, formerly Twitter, the most important thing for it to do “is to take steps to rebuild public trust.”
“Part of this involves taking a hard look inwards and at how we do work at Cruise,” the statement said. “Even if that means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult.”
(1/3) The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust. Part of this involves taking a hard look inwards and at how we do work at Cruise, even if it means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult.
— cruise (@Cruise) October 27, 2023
Cruise says the decision to suspend its driverless service is not related to any new on-road incidents — and “supervised AV operations” will continue.
Some Dallas city council members have raised concerns about the autonomous ride-share service.
“I want to make sure these vehicles aren’t hitting our streets until we are absolutely sure that they are safe and they are going to be keeping our first responders, our pedestrians, other drivers, safe,” District 2 Council Member Jesse Moreno said at a committee meeting earlier this month.
District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn also raised questions about the service but says she is glad to hear the company decided to reevaluate their practices.
"I'm excited for a future with autonomous vehicles," Mendelsohn said in a statement to KERA. "But regulations that require safety reporting, evidence of safe practices before serving high density areas, an ability to shut down unsafe operators and a cost-recovery plan for municipalizes are needed."
City officials say the company reached out to them months ago to talk about the implementation of the service. And according to new state law, the city can't necessarily regulate the vehicles either.
“Against this backdrop, Cruise has been collaboratively reaching out to us,” Department of Transportation Director Gus Khankarli said at a committee meeting in early October. “They started that outreach a couple of months ago.”
As a result, some Dallas first responders were trained on how to deal with the driverless cars.
When asked by city officials how many times the cars have been in collisions, Yariel Diaz, a government affairs manager with Cruise, 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 an early October committee meeting.
Cruise is currently facing two federal investigations into the company’s driverless car technology.
“We think it’s the right thing to do during a period when we need to be extra vigilant when it comes to risk, relentlessly focused on safety &, taking steps to rebuild public trust,” the company said on X.
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