Cruise said Thursday evening it has paused all driverless operations, a decision that comes just two days after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s deployment and driverless testing permits effectively ending its robotaxi operations in the state.
The action means that driverless operations in Austin and Houston, where the company had started charging for rides, as well as Phoenix has ended. Cruise has also ended driverless operations in Miami, where just yesterday the company had quietly launched, according to sources familiar with the company’s activities.
Cruise said in a post on social media site X that it will take time to examine its “processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust.” The GM self-driving subsidiary said it was taking the action to rebuild public trust and added it was not related to any new on-road incidents.
Cruise said it will continue with supervised autonomous vehicle operations, which means that a human safety operator will behind the wheel.
“We think it’s the right thing to do during a period when we need to be extra vigilant when it comes to risk, relentlessly focused on safety, & taking steps to rebuild public trust,” the company posted.
Cruise’s decision is an about face to internal communications with its employees during an all-hands meeting held Wednesday afternoon, according to sources. In that meeting, co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt told staff the company not paused operations elsewhere besides California and gave no indication that the company was planning to. Instead, Vogt told employees the company was re-evaluating how it discloses information to regulators to ensure it is clearly communicated, according to account from sources who heard the call.
This story is developing ….