California Regulators Order Cruise to Halve San Francisco Robotaxi Fleet
The California DMV orders Cruise to cut its driverless fleet in half following a crash with a fire truck and other recent traffic disruptions. The company complies while defending its overall safety record.
California regulators order Cruise to immediately cut its San Francisco robotaxi fleet by 50% after a recent crash involving a fire truck leaves a passenger injured. The California Department of Motor Vehicles mandates that the GM subsidiary operate no more than 50 driverless vehicles during the day and 150 at night while the state investigates concerning incidents. The agency warns that it has the authority to suspend or revoke Cruise's deployment permits if it finds an unreasonable risk to public safety.
Cruise confirms it is complying with the DMV's emergency directive and publishes a blog post explaining its perspective on the collision. The company argues that its autonomous technology positively impacts overall road safety amid a broader crisis of traffic fatalities. However, this crash adds to a growing list of recent snafus that includes at least 10 driverless cars stalling and blocking city traffic.
This sudden regulatory crackdown threatens to derail the commercial expansion plans that Cruise just secured last week. On August 10, the California Public Utilities Commission granted Cruise and Waymo final permits to operate their ride-hailing services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and charge fares across the entire city. Now, as the DMV digs into these disruptive and dangerous incidents, Cruise faces a major operational setback just as it attempts to scale its business.