The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday suspended Cruise’s permit to operate and test driverless autonomous vehicles in the state. The General Motors subsidiary misrepresented the safety of its vehicles’ technology, and its robotaxis are not safe for public operation, the department said in a statement.
The DMV’s decision follows its review of Cruise-provided video showing one of its robotaxis hitting a pedestrian on Oct. 2 and dragging her 20 feet at up to 7 mph. The collision left the pedestrian with traumatic injuries.
Cruise originally withheld the full video of the collision from the DMV, omitting the portion where the pedestrian was dragged by the robotaxi, the department told Bloomberg. The DMV only learned of the vehicle’s post-collision movement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is also evaluating the safety of Cruise’s robotaxis, Bloomberg reported.
