California pulls permits for Cruise's driverless cars over safety concerns Los Angeles Times

Table Of Content

• Cruise Self-Driving License Revoked After It Withheld Pedestrian Injury Footage, DMV Says
• U.S. to investigate fatal crash that may have involved Ford partially automated driving system
• Letters to the Editor: Automate everything? Driverless taxis mean more jobs taken from humans
• In scramble to protect workers against heat, California officials exclude prisons from new rules
• Air Travel Information for Your Cruise
• California suspends license for GM's Cruise robotaxi service for safety reasons
• General Motors recalls all Cruise robotaxis after one dragged a pedestrian

Cruise is still permitted to operate robotaxis in San Francisco with a human safety driver behind the wheel—which is how the company initially began to test self-driving cars in the city. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles says in a statement that it has determined that Cruise’s vehicles are not safe for public operation, and that the company ”misrepresented” safety information about its autonomous vehicle technology. In a filing on the suspension, the agency says that Cruise initially provided footage showing only the collision between its vehicle and the woman. It says Cruise did not disclose information about its car's subsequent “pull-over maneuver” that dragged the woman after the initial impact, and that the DMV only obtained full footage nine days after the crash. California officials suspended Cruise’s permits to operate driverless vehicles in the state, citing safety concerns.

Cruise Self-Driving License Revoked After It Withheld Pedestrian Injury Footage, DMV Says

The California Department of Motor Vehicles this week revoked the license for Cruise, which recently began transporting passengers throughout San Francisco. This month, one of Cruise’s top competitors, Waymo — owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company — expanded its driverless vehicles into Los Angeles amid growing concern. DMV officials said that there is no set time frame for a suspension, but that the agency provided Cruise with “the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits.” It wasn’t immediately clear what those steps would include. In the Order of Suspension, the California DMV said that the Cruise vehicle initially came to a hard stop and ran over the pedestrian. After coming to a complete stop, it then attempted to do a “pullover maneuver while the pedestrian was underneath the vehicle.” The car crawled along at 7 mph for about 20 feet, then came to a final stop. The recommended time to arrive at the airport is currently 90 minutes to two hours before departure for domestic and three hours before departure for most international flights.

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She says the agency was shown video of the entire incident, including the pull-over, the day after the crash. The DMV says Cruise will either have to appeal its decision or provide information about how it has addressed its technology’s “deficiencies” in order to win back its permit. But there were other incidents that also prompted investigations, including an accident in August when a Cruise vehicle got in the way of a firetruck, causing a crash and injuring the Cruise vehicle’s passenger. The day after that crash, the DMV announced its investigation into the vehicles and said Cruise would roll back the size of its fleet. The suspension came after the DMV reviewed the Oct. 2 crash , in which a non-Cruise driver first struck a pedestrian, pushing the pedestrian into the path of a Cruise robotaxi. The Cruise vehicle ended up pinning and dragging the pedestrian, causing multiple traumatic injuries, officials said.

Letters to the Editor: Automate everything? Driverless taxis mean more jobs taken from humans

The revocation followed a series of incidents that heightened concerns about the hazards and inconveniences caused by Cruise's robotaxis. The choice to suspend its driverless services isn't related to any new on-road incidents, Cruise added. Human-supervised operations of Cruise's autonomous vehicles, or AVs, will continue — including under California's indefinite suspension.

Now Cruise is being forced to slam on the brakes on its operations after the DMV concluded its robotaxis posed “an unreasonable risk to public safety,” according to a statement issued by the agency. The NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation said it received two reports involving pedestrian injuries from Cruise vehicles. It also identified two additional incidents from videos posted to public websites, noting that the total number is unknown. Also today, the California Public Utilities Commission, which initially granted Cruise permission to carry passengers, suspended the company’s permits as it carries out its own investigation of the company, CPUC spokesperson Terrie Prosper wrote in an email. The gatherings in both cities questioned Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent veto of a bill that would have required human safety drivers in heavy autonomous trucks — which aren’t on the road yet but could be soon.

Air Travel Information for Your Cruise

Cruise said that after examining its system, it has decided to add a chief safety officer, hire a law firm to review its response to the Oct. 2 crash, appoint a third-party engineering firm to find the technical cause, and adopt companywide “pillars” to focus on safety and transparency. The Detroit automaker had been expecting annual revenue of $1bn from Cruise by 2025 – a big jump from the $106m in revenue last year. The Cruise system “inaccurately characterized the collision as a lateral collision and commanded the AV to attempt to pull over out of traffic, pulling the individual forward rather than remaining stationary,” the company said. Cruise said that after examining its system, it has decided to add a chief safety officer, hire a law firm to review its response to the October crash, appoint a third-party engineering firm to find the technical cause, and adopt companywide “pillars” to focus on safety and transparency. On Feb. 10, 2015, Strobeck was indicted by a state grand jury in Passaic County and charged with criminal sexual conduct.

San Francisco — California regulators have revoked the license of a robotaxi service owned by General Motors after determining its driverless cars that recently began transporting passengers throughout San Francisco are a dangerous menace. In its reasoning for suspending Cruise’s permits, the DMV cited one particularly jarring incident from earlier this month when a Cruise vehicle rolled over a pedestrian who was flung into its path by a human driver. While the Cruise initially came to a complete stop, the driverless car then attempted to pull over to the side of the road with the woman critically injured underneath. As of Tuesday evening, the victim was in serious condition, according to a spokeswoman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. SAN FRANCISCO — Autonomous car company Cruise must immediately remove all its driverless vehicles from the roads here after the California Department of Motor Vehicles determined Tuesday that the robotaxis are causing an “unreasonable risk” to public safety — a major setback for the company. The agency allowed the use of the robotaxis in June last year but started to get cold feet about Cruise after a rash of incidents involving the computer-controlled cabs, cutting the size of its fleet this August.

people hurt after vehicle careens into Subway restaurant, …

Also, some ports, like Martinique and Guadeloupe, will not allow you to enter the country without a passport, even on a closed-loop cruise. You'll want to double-check the current guidelines (with a site like travel.state.gov for U.S. citizens) as they pertain to your specific travel plans. To that end, we've provided you with your very own toolbox of internet resources, in addition to our general overview. The Cruise system "inaccurately characterized the collision as a lateral collision and commanded the AV to attempt to pull over out of traffic, pulling the individual forward rather than remaining stationary," the company said.

General Motors recalls all Cruise robotaxis after one dragged a pedestrian

“Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the [autonomous vehicle]’s response to this kind of extremely rare event,” she wrote in a statement. According to the company, which has 40 cameras and sensors mounted on each of its vehicles, its self-driving vehicle quickly swerved and braked in an attempt to avoid a collision with the woman, but still made impact. The vehicle then stopped but, according to Cruise, “attempted to pull over,” dragging the woman an additional 20 feet. Cruise says this sort of evasive maneuver was built into the vehicle’s software to promote safety, and is required by both California and federal regulators. “The AV [autonomous vehicle] braked aggressively before impact and because it detected a collision, it attempted to pull over to avoid further safety issues,” Forghani said. “When the AV tried to pull over, it continued before coming to a final stop, pulling the pedestrian forward.

“As Cruise continues to push the boundaries and what AV technology can deliver to society, safety is always at the forefront and this is something they are continuously improving,” Barra said.

The patients ranged in age from 51 to 80 and the incidents took place between 2008 and 2014, according to the press release. John Strobeck, who maintained practices in Fair Lawn and Hawthorne, has not practiced medicine since he was temporarily suspended by the State Board of Medical Examiners in 2015. In accordance with TSA (the agency responsible for airport security) regulations, all liquids, gels, aerosols, creams and pastes being carried on must be in 3.4-ounce or smaller containers, and they must be packed in a single one-quart-sized clear, re-sealable plastic bag. Babies must typically be at least 12 months old for trans-ocean, "exotic" or world cruises and 6 months old for all other cruise destinations (with some exceptions).

But it then pulled to the right to get out of traffic, pulling the person about 20ft (six meters) forward. In documents filed with NHTSA, Cruise said its automated driving system was designed in some cases to pull over and out of traffic to minimize safety risks and disruption after a crash, with the response dependent on the characteristics of the crash. But in certain circumstances such as a pedestrian positioned on the ground in the vehicle's path, pulling over is not the desired response. “We have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust,” Cruise wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Thursday night. Forghani, the Cruise spokesperson, says the company has shared video and other information related to the incident with the California DMV and NHTSA officials.

General Motors’ autonomous vehicle brand had already been under investigation by federal transportation officials. The DMV didn't elaborate on the specific reasons for the suspension, but the move comes after a series of incidents that heightened concerns about the hazards and inconveniences caused by Cruise's robotaxis. The worries reached a new level earlier this month after a Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been hit by another vehicle driven by a human, and then pinned the pedestrian under one of its tires after coming to a stop.

Note that further documentation could be required for boarding an airplane for international flights; you can check in with the U.S. For U.S. citizens, passports are necessary for travel by land, sea or air anywhere outside the United States. Passport Card when traveling by land or sea (not air) between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean.

“Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV’s response to this kind of extremely rare event,” she said. In a statement Wednesday, the GM unit said that it did the recall even though it determined that a similar crash with a risk of serious injury could happen again every 10 million to 100 million miles without the update. In a statement on Wednesday, the GM unit said that it did the recall even though it determined that a similar crash with a risk of serious injury could happen again every 10m to 100m miles without the update.

One exception to the passport or passport card rule applies to "closed-loop" cruises -- itineraries that begin and end at the same U.S. port. Passengers on these cruises still need to present a government-issued photo ID (such as a driver's license) and proof of citizenship (like a government-issued birth certificate), but they are not required to carry passports. Note that for kids younger than 16 years of age, a birth certificate (or its equivalent) alone will suffice.