General Motors’ Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit, will pause operations of its managed and manual fleets across the United States after an October incident that led to a temporary halt and a comprehensive security review of its robotaxi service.
In a statement issued this week, Cruise confirmed that the pause will extend to roughly 70 vehicles operating in the United States, affecting both manual and supervised autonomous services.
The company described the decision as an orderly pause and a deliberate step to restore public confidence while a full security assessment is carried out.
Earlier in November, Cruise recalled about 950 autonomous vehicles following a software issue that prompted the company to halt operations after California regulators suspended license approvals for the state’s operations in October.
Cruise subsequently explained that the recall was prompted by an October 2 incident as part of an analysis of the software controlling vehicle behavior when an impact is detected.
Documents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a federal safety agency in the United States, describe a collision in San Francisco involving a traditional vehicle driven by a single person that struck a pedestrian, pushing the bystander into the path of a Cruise robotaxi.
The autonomous system allegedly misclassified the event as a noncritical side effect and, instead of braking or stopping, attempted to maneuver the vehicle out of the lane by pushing the pedestrian, which led to injury.
Cruise, which operates an Uber-like service using unmanned vehicles in San Francisco, suspended the program following the accident.
The company said it would implement additional measures to boost safety and transparency, including deploying an independent expert to conduct a comprehensive security evaluation.
Cruise also announced that vehicle operations would continue in closed-course training environments and that the company would maintain an active simulation program as part of its ongoing effort to advance autonomous vehicle technology and improve system reliability.