General Motors (GM) recalled 950 Cruise driverless vehicles after a pedestrian was dragged underneath one of the vehicles in San Francisco in October.
According to a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a person was crossing the street in a crosswalk on Oct. 2 when they were struck by a human-driven car. The pedestrian bounced off the windshield of the car and into the path of a Cruise robotaxi. The robotaxi braked aggressively but was unable to stop before rolling over the woman.
The recall addresses two issues with Cruise’s self-driving software. First, the software may improperly respond after a crash. In some cases, the cars may pull over out of traffic instead of remaining stationary, which could pose a hazard to other road users. Second, the software may not be able to accurately predict the movements of pedestrians and other objects, which could increase the risk of collisions.
Cruise said it will update its collision response software and address the issues with pedestrian prediction. The company is also hiring a chief safety officer and conducting a technical root cause analysis of the early October pedestrian crash.
The sources for this piece include an article in Axios.