Yet another hefty fine for the self-driving robotaxi company Cruise for sweeping things under the rug after one of its cars dragged an SF pedestrian 20 feet, as the US Department of Justice has hit them with a $500,000 fine for falsifying reports on the incident.
The single biggest black eye on the self-driving car industry was the October 2, 2023 incident where a self-driving Cruise robotaxi dragged a pedestrian 20 feet after another car had hit her, leaving that woman hospitalized for months. The California DMV quickly suspended Cruise's operating permits, and Cruise recalled all of its vehicles nationwide. Cruise has effectively been on mothballs since, though quietly relaunched in Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix over the summer, but with human drivers in the cars.
The regulatory consequences for Cruise stemmed not so much from the crash itself, but for their being less-than-honest with government officials over what had actually happened that night. And now NBC Bay Area reports that Cruise has agreed to pay another fine of $500,000 for falsifying crash records, as the US Department of Justice says Cruise filed a false report and obstructed the investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
“Federal laws and regulations are in place to protect public safety on our roads,” chief of the office of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division Martha Boersch said in a statement announcing the fine. “Companies with self-driving cars that seek to share our roads and crosswalks must be fully truthful in their reports to their regulators.”
According to the ruling, Cruise did file a report on the crash itself, but left out the part about dragging the pedestrian. Cruise did not update or correct that report for ten days, even though what happened had been pretty well-reported by the media at the time.
Cruise CEO Craig Glidden said in a statement that "Cruise will comply with the requirements set forth in the agreement, as we continue to move forward under new leadership and with a firm commitment to transparency with our regulators.”
There have already been fines over this incident, as the California Public Utilities Commission fined them $112,500 this past June, while the NHTSA levied their own $1.5 million penalty last month. But the biggest hit Cruise took was the estimated $8 million settlement they agreed to pay to the dragging victim herself, which was announced this past May.
Image: GetCruise
