California DMV Eases Some Restrictions on GM's Cruise While NHTSA Says It Will Investigate

It’s been a busy week at General Motors’ Cruise: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Friday it’s opening an investigation into the robotaxis over “inappropriately hard braking or [becoming] immobilized.” The announcement comes one day after the California Department of Motor Vehicles cleared Cruise to operate 24 hours a day with no restrictions on San Francisco streets.

NHTSA announced the investigation after multiple complaints about the Cruise taxis, including at least three incidents where hard braking caused human drivers following the taxis to rear-end Cruise vehicles, Reuters reports. The agency is also concerned with vehicles becoming immobilized in the middle of traffic, a problem that also plagues Cruise competitor Waymo. The investigation covers 242 Cruise vehicles and may result in a recall.

Read more

• These Are Your Guilty Pleasure Cars

• The 15 Most Successful Formula 1 Cars of All Time

• These Cars Should Never Have Been Killed Off

Currently, 30 Cruise taxis operate in the San Francisco area, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The California DMV lifted restrictions Thursday after a year of heavy lobbying efforts from General Motors. It was only back in February 2022 that Cruise began offering driverless rides to beta users of its car-summoning app during limited operating hours. By this June, Cruise had been cleared to operate outside of the busy downtown area—approximately 30 percent of streets. Cruise was granted permission to take fares during the day only last month.