In early October a Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco was involved in a serious accident. As I described here, the taxi and a car driven by a human driver were both stopped at a red light. When the light turned green both cars accelerated. But a woman started walking across the street against the light. The human driver hit the woman with enough force that she was thrown into the lane of the taxi. That driver then fled the scene, a clear case of hit and run.

Unfortunately, the taxi tried to stop but also hit the woman who was already on the ground. The car paused and then performed as it was supposed to in case of an accident, i.e. it pulled off the road to avoid being a hazard to other drivers. But in this case the woman was still trapped under the car and by trying to pull out of the way, the taxi wound up dragging her 20 additional feet. She was still trapped under the car when first responders arrived.

As a result of this accident and an earlier crash in which no one was hurt, California’s DMV shut down Cruise’s license to operate in San Francisco. That was already very bad news for Cruise which wound up having to lay people off. Now the company is apparently in more trouble. The California Public Utilities Commission released a report Friday which concluded that Cruise had not been forthcoming about what happened immediately after the accident.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Friday ordered Cruise to appear at a February 6 hearing to defend itself against accusations that it failed to provide “complete information to the Commission” regarding the incident, and “for making misleading public comments regarding its interactions with the Commission.”

On the evening of October 2, a human driver struck a pedestrian in San Francisco, the impact of which caused the pedestrian to fall in a Cruise robotaxi’s path. The AV instituted a hard-braking maneuver and came to a stop, but ended up running over the pedestrian in the process.

The CPUC — and the California Department of Motor Vehicles — says that order of events was shared with the agency. Cruise allegedly left out what came next. The Cruise AV attempted a pullover maneuver while the pedestrian was still stuck under the vehicle, resulting in them being dragged.

From the report itself, the failure to mention that the taxi dragged the woman down the street happened the day after the accident.

On October 3, 2023, Jose Alvarado of Cruise telephoned Ashlyn Kong, a CPED analyst at the Commission, and informed her of the collision.7 During this telephonic meeting, Mr. Alvarado’s description of the incident only included that the Cruise AV immediately stopped upon impact with the pedestrian and contacted Cruise’s remote assistance.8 Mr. Alvarado’s description of the October 2, 2023 incident omitted that the Cruise AV had engaged in the pullover maneuver which resulted in the pedestrian being dragged an additional 20 feet at 7 mph…

On October 19, 2023, Cruise responded to TEB’s data request and provided the full video of the October 2, 2023 incident.13

Thus, from October 3, 2023 to October 18, 2023, Cruise failed to provide the Commission with a full account of the October 2, 2023 incident for 15 days.

The Commission also faults Cruise for, essentially lying to the public. A public explanation of the crash (which I quoted here) claimed the company had “proactively shared information with the DMV, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), including the full video, and have stayed in close contact with regulators to answer their questions.” That was true by the 24th when Cruise posted the press release but as the report argues, it wasn’t true initially.

That statement is misleading in two respects: first Cruise claims to have “proactively shared information” when, in fact, it withheld information from the Commission for 15 days, thus misleading the Commission. Second, by withholding information about the extent of the Cruise AV interaction with the pedestrian, Cruise misled the DMV and, in turn, the Commission into thinking that the original video shown and commented on accurately memorialized the full extent of the incident.

So Cruise will get a chance to explain itself in February but it is facing up to $1 million in fines if the state doesn’t like the explanation. That’s certainly not going to help a company that is already laying people off and which now has no income because it’s still not allowed to operate.