General Motors’ robot taxi service Cruise’s autonomous vehicle was involved in an accident in June. As a result of the accident, the vehicle was damaged and the passengers were slightly injured. While the investigation of this accident continues, Cruise has decided to recall its autonomous vehicles.
Cruise recalls 80 autonomous vehicles for software update
The accident occurred as a result of the autonomous vehicle making a move to turn left at the intersection, while the oncoming vehicle did not turn from the intersection and went straight. Both the San Francisco police department and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation after the accident.
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Cruise stated that the oncoming vehicle was driving in the right turn lane and was traveling at approximately 65 km/h in the lane with the 40 km/h speed limit before moving out of the lane. The company has admitted that the autonomous taxi is not “reactive enough”.
Cruise spokesperson Hannah Lindow refuses to release video of the crash and will recall her vehicles for software updates. Cruise said the software update will improve the robotax’s ability to predict what other vehicles will do, including in accident-like conditions.
Cruise continued his robotaxis service in San Francisco after the accident. However, Cruise disabled the ability of his vehicles to turn left in this way and reduced the area where the robotax was operating. After the updates, Cruise gradually restarted unprotected left turns.
Unprotected left turns are often considered one of the most challenging things a fully autonomous vehicle can perform. For example, Waymo’s robot taxis in Arizona sometimes avoid these turns to help minimize risks.
Developing and operating a robot taxi is an extremely difficult and expensive branch of service. Cruise company’s autonomous vehicles have been on the agenda with different errors before. Let’s see when exactly robot taxis will be used?
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