One day after California regulators awarded Cruise a milestone allow in its efforts to commercialize autonomous-driving know-how, one of many firm’s automobiles was concerned in a crash that resulted in a number of accidents.
The crash occurred in San Francisco on the night time of June 3, when a Cruise automobile working in autonomous mode made a left flip in entrance of an oncoming Toyota Prius on the intersection of Geary Boulevard and Spruce Street.
Occupants of each automobiles had been injured, in accordance with a report Cruise filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Todd Brugger, Cruise’s vice chairman of worldwide markets, wrote within the report that police and emergency medical companies handled the occupants for “allegedly minor injuries.”
General Motors-backed Cruise stated its self-driving automobile got here to a cease within the roadway earlier than finishing its left flip, and was stationary when struck.
The firm supplied additional statements about its interpretation of the place and conduct of the human-driven Toyota Prius in its submitting, saying the Prius was dashing and that it had continued straight from a right-turn lane.
Those particulars couldn’t be independently verified. A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department couldn’t discover an incident report associated to the crash Wednesday, and stated it was doable no report was generated.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated it opened a particular investigation into the crash.
NHTSA’s particular crash investigations are separate from defect investigations used to find out if automobiles ought to be recalled. The company has not opened a defect probe into Cruise. NHTSA has opened 45 particular crash investigations into crashes since 2016 involving suspected automated and superior driver programs; that is the primary involving a Cruise automobile.
A Cruise spokesperson declined Wednesday to say why the AV stopped earlier than finishing its flip.
Although the Cruise automobile might have been stationary, Phil Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and autonomous-vehicle security professional, stated way more info would nonetheless be wanted to evaluate the conduct of each people and machine within the crash.
“Many people have a word for a driver who cuts in front of them and then stops in the road, and it’s not a polite or charitable word,” he stated. “There are a lot of unknowns here. We don’t know if the Prius driver intended to turn right, but then swerved to try and avoid the crash with the stationary vehicle, for example. There are just a lot of unknowns.”
In its necessary report, Cruise stated the crash happened whereas the automobile was in “driverless autonomous mode.” The firm spokesperson declined to offer extra specifics on whether or not the human occupant or human occupants within the self-driving automobile was or had been a ride-hailing passenger or an worker.
Source: www.autonews.com
