The Cruise self-driving car unit faced probes from the United States Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January due to an October 2023 mishap where its robotaxis hit a pedestrian and dragged her for 20 feet. Cruise blamed a “failure of leadership” for the incident. It promised to reform its culture while announcing the government probe. An expert described Cruise’s actions after the accident as “egregious.”
The Implications of the New Investigations
Cruise's disclosure and the government's latest probe into the firm's mishandling of the incident piled pressure on General Motors (GM) and its leadership. “GM CEO Mary Barra has constantly defended the company's investment in the robotaxi operation despite its whopping $8 billion investment loss,” said personal injury attorney Jeffrey Phillips of Phillips Law Group Injury Lawyers. The accident generates issues for other robotaxi firms, such as Amazon’s Zoox and Alphabet’s Waymo. Critics of robotaxis have called for the reduced rollout of the vehicles. California has suspended the firm's permission to run autonomous vehicles in the jurisdiction.
How Cruise Handled the Incident
Cruise failed to disclose the victim’s identity. Another vehicle had initially struck the woman, but the firm also failed to reveal the scope of the accident probe that the SEC and the Justice Department did. Cruise received a report from a law firm. The report opined that the company did not intend to influence the authorities' intelligence. However, it comprehensively explained how executives made it challenging for officials to understand or assess the severity of the mishap immediately.
Professor Bryant Walker Smith, an expert in autonomous vehicle law from the University of South Carolina, accused Cruise of insincerity. He affirmed that the company knew at some point that they had misled the public, but did not make any attempt to correct the misinformation. The findings revealed that the company's former Chief Executive Officer, Kyle Vogt, and COO Gil West disbanded the response team within 24 hours of the incident. Apart from this inexplicable step, Cruise also failed to collate critical information from eyewitnesses.
Report of a Distinct Technical Review
Exponent, a reputable engineering company, conducted a separate technical review of the case and discovered that the Cruise car had mapping errors and wrongly identified hitting the victim as a side-impact collision. The transport firm has updated its software to correct this error. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) promised to review GM’s report during its investigations into the incident.
Cruise’s Stance and Focus
According to the report, the company cited three issues: mistakes in judgment, a judgmental approach of government officials, and a gross misunderstanding of regulatory demands. The report alleged that several people knew details of the case before the company met with regulators. Instead of presenting material facts to regulators, Cruise’s leadership focused on rebutting media narratives. They alleged that the negative stories in the media were “drowning” them.
In the last quarter of 2023, Cruise workers tried to prevail on the NHTSA to reconsider probing the incident. They cited the failure of the initial probe of the federal safety agency to reveal how the woman was dragged by the vehicle. The company has sacked nine executives since the crash. Vogt and Co-Founder Dan Kan resigned. The firm also reduced one-fourth of its workforce. The report revealed that CEO Vogt only wanted to show a four-second clip of the incident he had edited himself.
The Likely Consequences
State regulators said the company could face almost two million dollars in fines and other penalties for concealing the details of the incident. Cruise regarded its response to the mishap as a mistake. It blamed these "mistakes" on inexperience in dealing with the media, public, and regulators. The company initially provided California regulators with a clip of the accident, but with no verbal context. For instance, the company did not reveal that the vehicle dragged a woman for 20 feet. Instead, Cruise said the video was self-sufficient.
Cruise also partly blamed internet connection challenges for its lack of transparency. Regulators could not fully view the video in their three meetings with Cruise management. However, Cruise officials made no attempts to fix the problem. The report indicated that, contrary to Cruise’s assumption, the video was not self-sufficient. The company could have explained everything that happened to regulators when it had multiple opportunities to do so.
Sanctions and Cruise’s Plans
After the incident, stakeholders heavily criticized GM and Cruise. They blamed the company for being insincere and secretive. The California Department of Motor Vehicles withdrew the firm's permit to run driverless vehicles. Cruise revealed it planned to return to testing on public streets. However, the company did not give details of the timeframe or locations where the testing will take place. In June 2023, Barra affirmed a prediction that the company could generate $50 billion annually by 2030.
Conclusion
If you or one of your loved ones is involved in an incident like this, it is advisable to contact a local personal injury attorney. Cases like this are complex and require the expertise of a legal representative for a favorable outcome.
