Almost a year after the horrific accident where one of its driverless cars overturned and dragged a woman for 20 meters, Cruise plans to return to the Bay Area. The company wrote to X that it is deploying “many” self-driving cars in Sunnyvale and Mountain View, with the goal of moving to a “supervised trial” of five self-driving cars later.
“Resuming testing in the Bay Area is an important step forward as we continue to work closely with California regulators and local stakeholders,” the post read. “This will allow our local employees to interact directly with our product as they refine and develop our technology through R&D.”
Driverless Cruise cars were once commonplace on the streets of San Francisco, but all but disappeared after an incident on October 2 last year, when a reckless driver hit a woman, sending her flying into the path of a car. one of the company’s robotaxis. The Cruise car collided with the woman again, but instead of stopping until the emergency services arrived, it stopped on the side of the road with the deceased trapped underneath.
Afterward, the California DMV accused Cruise of withholding important information, including whether the vehicle was the one that towed the victim, and suspended its license to carry passengers.
Cruise grounded its ships across the country and began the long process of addressing its shortcomings. That includes a complete overhaul of the leadership team, including the firing of CEO Kyle Vogt. About 20 percent of the company’s workforce was laid off, and Cruise was later ordered to pay $112,500 to the California Public Utilities Commission.
Since then, Cruise has resumed visits to many cities, including Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas. It also scrapped plans for its autonomous purpose-built shuttle called Origin. GM, Cruise’s parent company, has recommitted to the project by dropping $850 million on Cruise.
Returning to the city where the mobbing incident took place, Cruise puts himself in grave danger. But if it’s going to compete with its biggest rival Waymo, it needs to get back to its place where both companies are at risk.