Cruise, a self-driving car company owned by General Motors, did not disclose specific details about the October 2023 accident to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), according to a statement from the US Department of Justice. It is known that a Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco hit a pedestrian after the girl was hit by another vehicle and dragged 6.1 meters.
In October 2023, Cruise tried to convince the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration not to open an investigation into the injury incident and submitted a report that did not disclose the pedestrian being dragged. The automaker also reported incomplete information about crashes involving its autonomous driving system, including two reports related to the October crash.
In a statement, Cruise Chairman Craig Glidden said the company would comply with the terms of the agreement and was committed to transparency with regulators.
However, in response to the crash and the investigations by US authorities, at that time, both the CEO and co-founder of Cruise resigned. The company also cut a quarter of its workforce and fired nine executives, including its chief legal and policy officer.
In September, the automaker also agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine to resolve an NHTSA investigation. It also must submit to the agency a plan to address the issue and improve compliance with reporting serious incidents for at least two years.
Cruise has restarted supervised autonomous driving testing in three US cities. In August 2024, the company said it would offer self-driving cars on the Uber ride-hailing platform starting next year.