Cruise receives a $1.5 million fine for concealing details of a pedestrian accident from a safety authority

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors, must pay a $1.5 million penalty to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after preliminary reports to the safety regulator about last 12 months’s pedestrian accident omitted information that The company’s robotxi dragged a woman 20 feet.

Punishment is a component a consent order announced the regulator on Monday. The order, which was jointly agreed to by the corporate and NHTSA, may even require Cruise to submit a “corrective action plan” that outlines changes it has made to raised comply with the regulator’s rules.

“It is critical for companies developing automated driving systems to prioritize safety and transparency from the outset,” NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said in a statement.

Cruise may even need to submit safety reports to the regulator every 90 days for the following two years, together with a report detailing any software updates and a report detailing how the robotxi fleet complies with road traffic regulations. NHTSA has the choice to increase the consent order for a further 12 months.

Steve Kenner, Cruise’s chief safety officer, said in a statement that the consent order represents a “step forward in a new chapter” for the corporate and that it represents a “firm commitment to greater transparency in our interactions with our regulators.”

The consent order was issued almost a 12 months after the infamous San Francisco accident. The pedestrian was first hit by a human-driven vehicle after which ended up on the road of the Cruise robotaxi. Even though the Cruise AV braked, it still hit the pedestrian and stopped. However, then the robotxi drove to the side of the road and dragged the pedestrian with it.

Cruise and other AV corporations are required to submit a series of reports to NHTSA each time one of their vehicles is involved in an accident. According to the NHTSA, the primary message Cruise sent the day after the crash didn’t include any information in regards to the woman being dragged. The regulator said the second report, which was due inside 10 days of the disaster, also omitted this information. It wasn’t until Cruise’s third report, filed a month after the crash, gave NHTSA the total picture.

At the time, the California Department of Motor Vehicles accused Cruise of failing to release footage of a robotaxi dragging a pedestrian, which was the idea on which the DMV suspended Cruise’s operating permits.

In Monday’s consent order, NHTSA said Cruise “was aware of the post-crash behavior of the Cruise vehicle” when it filed the primary two reports but “omitted this material information from the reports.”

Over the past 12 months, Cruise has undergone a makeover and now has latest management, fewer employees, and is slowly getting its robotics back for testing in multiple locations. In June, it paid a fine to the California Public Utilities Commission, and earlier this month it announced it was beginning to bring some AV vehicles back to the Bay Area – though human-operated and only in Mountain View and Sunnyvale.