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Cruise is redeploying robotaxis in Phoenix after practically 5 months of paused operations, the corporate stated in a weblog submit. The catch? The vehicles can be in so-called “handbook mode,” in order that they gained’t be driving themselves.
Cruise will resume handbook driving of its autonomous autos to create maps and collect highway info in sure cities, beginning with Phoenix, the corporate stated Tuesday. The Normal Motors subsidiary already had a presence in Phoenix earlier than it pulled its total U.S.-based fleet final yr following an incident in San Francisco that left a pedestrian caught underneath and dragged by a Cruise robotaxi.
Previous to that incident, Cruise had been asserting launches in new cities — together with Dallas, Houston and Miami — at a startling tempo. Critics accused the corporate of increasing too quick and slicing corners on security.
Now Cruise seems to be going again to fundamentals, a pointy pivot away from the aggressive development technique the corporate has been pursuing for the previous few years. In 2022, former Cruise CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt — who stepped down amid final yr’s controversy — instructed buyers that Cruise had “de-risked the technical strategy” by making use of what labored effectively in San Francisco to comparable ride-share markets.
In a weblog submit printed Tuesday that reads prefer it might have been written in 2018, Cruise explains the way it must first determine high-fidelity location knowledge for highway options and map info like pace limits and lane paint in order that the AV can perceive the place it’s in relation to its atmosphere. The submit then goes on to chart out how Cruise will finally make it again to completely autonomous operations: slowly, supervised by people, and with steady validation of the know-how.
All of those steps are half and parcel of constructing and increasing a self-driving automobile enterprise, which leaves us questioning if Cruise is spelling out the plain for the general public’s profit, or if its new security group is scrapping its outdated know-how and beginning over?
A Cruise spokesperson declined to touch upon the corporate’s technique.
The October incident wasn’t the primary time Cruise’s know-how brought on issues. At the same time as Cruise expanded to new cities within the second half of 2023, its robotaxis have been routinely malfunctioning in cities like San Francisco and Austin, disrupting the stream of visitors, public transit and first responders.
Technological points apart, what actually put Cruise in sizzling water late final yr was its response to the incident. Regulators accused the corporate of withholding details about the crash, solely sharing {that a} Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been flung into its path after first being struck by a human-driven automobile. An inner report performed by legislation agency Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and launched in January confirmed that Cruise staff weren’t forthcoming with what occurred after the Cruise automobile ran over the pedestrian, solely sharing days later that the robotaxi’s pullover maneuver resulted within the pedestrian being dragged for 20 toes.
The mishandling of the data resulted in father or mother firm GM slashing spending and taking higher management of Cruise.
An enormous a part of Cruise’s technique shifting ahead, as outlined in Tuesday’s weblog submit, entails reforming and establishing up to date incident response and disaster administration protocols to make sure extra environment friendly and clear responses sooner or later. The corporate says it is going to additionally work on improved engagement with first responders to facilitate trainings in every precinct it plans to function in.
Cruise has not introduced when or the place it is going to resume driverless operations. The corporate’s predominant operations have been traditionally primarily based in San Francisco, however Cruise misplaced its permits to function there following the accident. Cruise started increasing its paid service space within the Phoenix space in August 2023. Alphabet’s Waymo — Cruise’s predominant competitor that’s nonetheless lively in San Francisco — has operated a paid, driverless robotaxi service within the space since 2020 and final yr doubled its service space in downtown Phoenix and launched driverless rides to the airport.
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