On July 15, a person claiming to be a Cruise employee sent an anonymous letter to California regulators suggesting that the company’s Robotaxi service is not yet complete and that the rush to launch it to the public was inappropriate. In the letter, the employee, who identified himself as working in Cruise’s safety-critical systems, repeatedly highlighted safety issues with the Robotaxi service, suggesting that the company deliberately hid crash findings involving Cruise vehicles and other sensitive and potentially damaging matters from most of its employees, arguing that this was inconsistent with its “safety first” culture. This is inconsistent with the “safety first” culture.
Recently, Cruise’s Robotaxi has caused public controversy due to frequent safety accidents. Is it really too hasty to commercialize Robotaxi?
Cruise, with its technical advantages, is favored in the investment field
The Cruise was founded in 2013 in San Francisco, U.S.A. At first, it was only responsible for producing the autonomous driving kit RP-1, which helped Audi A4 and S4 to equip high-speed autonomous driving function successively, and then entered the autonomous driving field, and was acquired by GM in 2016, becoming a sub-brand of GM.
Cruise has strong software as well as algorithm strength, and its technology solution is multiple sensor redundancy (5 LIDAR, 14 cameras, 3 wide-angle radar, 8 long-range radar, 10 ultrasonic) + high precision map + AI processor, which is comparable to any other product on the market in terms of the number and variety of sensors.
Cruise has also been favored in the investment field, attracting Honda, Softbank, and Microsoft to join.
In October of 2021, Cruise saw a new profit window.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles officially issued a license for Cruise to provide autonomous driving services to the public for a fee, and the licensing of the Robotaxi service means a new dawn for the commercialization of Robotaxi, which is expected to achieve its goal of commercialization after obtaining the license. historic moment.
In June 2022, GM’s Cruise was granted the first “full driverless deployment permit” in California, which means Cruise can provide services without a safety officer in the front driver’s seat and charge a fee; a milestone leap in commercialization.
Since then, Cruise’s market value has gone way up and the market has been buzzing.
With the core technology advantage, Cruise continues to innovate and become the leader in the commercialization of Robotaxi service in the field of autonomous driving. Users and the market are very much expecting more performance from Cruise afterwards and smoothly pushing forward the commercialization to the ground, but in practice, the progress seems not as smooth as imagined.
Cruise gets a license and then has an accident, and the safety of Robotaxi service is questioned
According to foreign media reports, one of Cruise’s driverless mode cars was involved in a crash in San Francisco on June 3, resulting in multiple injuries.
The accident occurred when Cruise’s driverless car entered a left turn lane and signaled a turn, then initiated a left turn when the light was green. At the same time, a 2016 Toyota Prius approached the intersection from the opposite direction in the right turn lane, and upon entering the intersection, the Prius struck the right rear of the Cruise self-driving car before the Cruise vehicle came to a stop before completing the turn.
This incident occurred just one day after California transportation regulators granted Cruise a landmark permit to commercialize self-driving technology, a slightly dramatic scene that raised public questions about the safety of the Robotaxi service.
The crash, New Smart Driver has learned, was not the first safety incident to occur at Cruise:
In April, one of the company’s self-driving cars blocked the path of a San Francisco Fire Department truck heading to the scene of a fire, interfering with the rescue and causing injuries.
Also in April, a San Francisco police officer stopped a Cruise car for driving at night without its headlights on, and the vehicle in question was running lights.
On June 28, multiple Cruise self-driving cars gathered at a city intersection, blocking traffic for several hours.
From Cruise’s fee-based license and California’s first “full driverless deployment permit” to a number of accidents involving self-driving cars and reports from employees claiming to be from within the company, the winds have been changing throughout the process, and after this series of events, the public cannot help but wonder whether Cruise’s Robotaxi But no matter how things change, for the public, safety is always at the top of the list.
These events in general show that self-driving technology currently has many issues to address, and according to the CPUC’s resolution, the commission has the authority to suspend or revoke self-driving car permits at any time if it finds that Cruise’s unsafe behavior becomes apparent.
How have things changed since then, and is it really too much of a rush to get Cruise driverless commercialization off the ground? We can wait patiently for the outcome of the review first.
