GM's Cruise Attempts To Build Better Relations With Emergency Responders After Its AV's Involvement In An Accident Last Year

General Motors Co‘s GM autonomous driving unit Cruise is attempting to better interactions with emergency responders with the formation of a new Cruise Emergency Responder Advisory Council following the involvement of one of its autonomous vehicles in an accident last year.

What Happened: Cruise announced on Thursday that it is introducing the Cruise Emergency Responder Advisory Council, a group dedicated to enhancing collaboration with public safety professionals.

The council includes the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Sheriffs' Association, OnStar, and the Texas Police Chiefs Association.

These experts in the field of road safety will engage directly with Cruise’s internal teams including engineering, safety, operations, and more to help better the company’s autonomous vehicle product development, and incident and safety processes, the company said.

“Given their expertise, they have meaningful feedback on how autonomous vehicle companies, including Cruise, can improve our operations and interactions with emergency responders in the field. Cruise shares their mission to make roads and communities safer, and know we can and must take their experiences into account as we resume operations,” Cruise said in a statement

Why It Matters: GM’s autonomous driving unit Cruise suspended operations in the U.S. late last year following the involvement of one of its robotaxis in an accident in San Francisco. The company resumed manual driving in the city of Phoenix to gather road information in April and in Houston and Dallas, Texas in June.

Cruise accrued expenses of $400 million in the first quarter as compared to the $800 million in the quarter before. The company said in April that it expects the unit’s full-year expenses to be around $1.7 billion.

In June, GM’s CFO Paul Jacobson said at Deutsche Bank’s Global Auto Industry Conference in New York City that the company is investing $850 million to cover operating costs at Cruise. The company is also reportedly scouting for external financing from investors to beef up the unit’s financial position.

The company also appointed Marc Whitten as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) late last month, replacing Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt who left his CEO position last year following the safety incident.

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