SAN FRANCISCO – Cruise LLC, the San Francisco-based autonomous vehicle company, has agreed to settle a federal charge for providing false information to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in connection with an October 2023 crash involving one of its driverless vehicles. As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, Cruise will pay a $500,000 fine and implement a Safety Compliance Program, while cooperating with government investigations.
The incident in question occurred on October 2, 2023, when a Cruise vehicle operating without a driver ran over a pedestrian in San Francisco. A human-driven car had struck the pedestrian, throwing her into the Cruise vehicle’s path. Although the autonomous car initially stopped, it failed to detect the woman beneath it and attempted to pull over, dragging her over 20 feet.
Cruise’s report to NHTSA omitted this critical detail about the dragging, making the account incomplete under federal requirements. In a subsequent video conference, technical issues prevented the relevant footage from being shown, and Cruise’s one-day report did not correct the error.