Cruise Faces Investigation After Collision With Emergency Vehicle, To Withdraw Half Its Active Fleet

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on Friday instructed General Motors Co’s GM Cruise to withdraw 50% of its operating vehicles off roads after one of its autonomous cars crashed with an emergency vehicle.

What Happened: Cruise will now have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150 driverless vehicles in operation at night.

DMV is investigating ‘recent concerning incidents’ involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco, the auto regulator said in a statement that followed the Cruise vehicle’s crash with an emergency vehicle on Thursday. “The DMV reserves the right, following investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits if there is determined to be an unreasonable risk to public safety,” it added.

Cruise, in the meantime, offered its analysis of the incident and said that several factors added ‘complexity’ to the crash.

The autonomous vehicle identified the other vehicle as it came into view and reduced its speed but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision, Cruise said in a blog post. The intersection makes identifying vehicles around the corner difficult and the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic made it more complicated for the AV to chart its path, the post added.

Why It Matters: Alphabet Inc‘s GOOG GOOGL autonomous driving tech unit Waymo and  Cruise received a driverless deployment permit for 24×7 fared operation in San Francisco from the California Public Utilities Commission on Aug. 10 despite strong opposition. Several agencies including the police and fire departments together with several residents had opposed scaling autonomous vehicles citing undue interference and unpredictable driving.

"It’s a huge milestone for the AV industry, but even more importantly a signal to the country that CA prioritizes progress over our tragic status quo," Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt had said on receiving the permit.

Until then, autonomous vehicle rides were available only in parts and during certain hours of the day. 

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