GM’s self-driving unit Cruise filed a voluntary recall with federal regulators to update the software in 300 robotaxis after one hit the back of a San Francisco city bus.
Cruise said in a report with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration that it initiated the recall because, in rare cases, the software could inaccurately predict the movement of “articulated” vehicles.
No injuries were reported in the March 23 low-speed accident in which a Cruise robotaxi drove into the back of an articulated San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority bus. Cruise’s self-driving software could not accurately predict the bus’s movement and hit the rear after braking too late. Cruise said the incident resulted in minor damage to the AV’s front fender and caused no injuries.
“Fender benders like this rarely happen to our AVs, but this incident was unique,” Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt wrote in a statement. blog posted Friday. “Under no circumstances do we expect our vehicles to travel in the back of a city bus, so even a single incident like this was worthy of immediate and careful study.”
Vogt went on to explain how Cruise engineers reacted to the crash and gave some details about the investigation. The company updated the software on March 25 and said the problem has been fixed.
Last September, Cruise reported a software recall and update in 80 of its robotaxis after a crash in June. The crash, which left two riders with minor injuries, received national attention because it happened a day after Cruise received final approval from California regulators to market its self-driving robotaxi service.
Cruising said in the regulatory filing that the software recall was made due to a “rare circumstance” in which the automated driving system caused the self-driving robotaxi – which had no human safety driver behind the wheel – to brake hard while making an unprotected left turn.
Cruise said in an emailed statement last September that it made the voluntary application in the interest of transparency to the public, adding that it relates to an earlier version of software and does not affect or change current operations. on the road.
