Cruise resumes operations in California, thankfully with human drivers

Autonomous vehicle outfit Cruise is slowly returning to operation in California following an incident in which a pedestrian was by a robotaxi for approximately 20 feet in October 2023. The company on X that it is reintroducing human-operated mapping vehicles to the streets in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Its next stated goal is “to progress to supervised testing with up to 5 AVs later this fall.”

The past year has not been a pretty picture for Cruise, which was by GM in 2016. On October 2 last year, a pedestrian in San Francisco was hit by a human driver who fled the scene, but the impact put her in the path of a Cruise driverless taxi that dragged her 20 feet and ultimately stopped on top of her leg. After the incident, Cruise was of its license to operate autonomous vehicles in California. The company stopped all operations of both and in order to engage in a comprehensive safety review.

CEO Kyle Vogt in November, followed by the of co-founder and chief product officer Daniel Kan. GM plans to slash Cruise’s funding and to restructure leadership based on external safety reviews. Nine more members of Cruise leadership were in December, and nearly a quarter of the company’s workforce was that month. The final blow was an by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2024, questioning whether the company failed to disclose additional details about the accident during reviews with regulators.

Since then, however, Cruise has gradually been bouncing back. Vehicles with drivers returned to in April and to in June. The re-emergence in Texas was paired with an announcement that GM would invest $850 million into Cruise in support of its operational costs. Now it’s rejoined the California market, if in an extremely attenuated capacity. These new excursions have all been preliminary and none of the driverless cars have returned to the streets yet. But Cruise still has a long road ahead to prove its safety credentials and win back public trust.