General Motors issued recalls for 300 Cruise vehicles after one crash into the back of a bus in San Francisco a few weeks ago. The company's robotaxi units contain automated driving software and were branded as self-driving vehicles.
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COLMA, CA - JULY 25: The General Motors logo is displayed on a car a Chevrolet dealership on July 25, 2018 in Colma, California. General Motors lowered its profit forecasts citing higher steel and aluminum costs due to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
Recalling Cruise Vehicles
Cruise autonomous vehicles unit has recalled 300 robotaxis to update its software after a crash between a San Francisco bus and a driverless unit from the company last March 23. CBS reported that this was caused by an issue related to the prediction of unique movements of a San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority bus in rare circumstances, hence the recalls.
Fortunately, the accident only caused moderate damage to the Cruise and did not result in any injuries. Cruise filed on Friday in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the company already addressed the concerns and updated its software.
As per the filing, the driverless vehicle's view of the bus' front section was fully blocked when the bus pulled out in front of the AV suddenly into a lane of traffic from a bus. Additionally, no other crashes have happened with the same problem. Despite the vehicle automatically braking as a response, it was already too late, causing the accident to occur.
Chief Executive Kyle Vogt stated that circumstances like these rarely happen to their vehicles and considered it a unique incident. "We do not expect our vehicles to run into the back of a city bus under any conditions, so even a single incident like this was worthy of immediate and careful study," he added.
Vogt also promised that the crash would not recur in future same circumstances after applying a new update to its vehicles. Recalling the vehicles is an effort of the company to offer transparency and understanding to the public.
Previous Recalls
In September 2022, Cruise also disclosed recalling and updating software in 80 self-driving vehicles after also a crash in San Francisco last June 2022. Reuters reported that this accident left two people injured.
GM also issued a recall last December for 140,000 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles in the United States and Canada after an accident that caused the carpet inside the car to catch fire. GM recalled model years 2017 through 2023 to avoid incidents like this happening in the future.
120,000 cars in the US were affected while 20,000 were in Canada. GM did not disclose how often this has happened and did not give any details regarding the incident.
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The San Francisco County Transporation Authority has already submitted two leets to the California Public Utilities Commission addressing the problems robotaxis causes in the city. According to the submitted letters, the authorities want to address the issues for self-driving cars, particularly the ones for ride-hailing services.
Aside from accidents, they argued that robotaxi malfunctions are causing traffic on the road that leads to buildups and delays. It also obstructs the way for responders via 911 calls to block "more important" calls.
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