General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary Cruise is recalling the automated driving software in 300 of its vehicles after a collision with a bus in San Francisco last month.
In a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dated April 3, Cruise said the software may cause a crash because it inaccurately predicts the movement of vehicles such as buses, tractors or trailers.
As the majority owner of San Francisco-based Cruise, GM has been operating modified self-driving Bolts as a taxi service in San Francisco since June, when California regulators allowed Cruise to charge for rides during limited hours and locations.
This recall follows a March 23 crash when a self-driving Cruise car inaccurately predicted the movement of a San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority bus and hit the rear of the bus going about 10 mph, according to a blog by Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt and the NHTSA filing.
In the filing, Cruise states that the automated driving system initially perceived both sections of the bus as the bus pulled out of a stop in front of the Cruise vehicle. But as the bus moved into the Cruise car’s lane, the rear section of the bus obstructed the front section. When the bus slowed, the automated driving software thought the bus was continuing to move forward “based on the anticipated behavior of the front section of the bus, which was by then obstructed.” The automated driving system told the Cruise car to stop too late, Cruise’s report to NHTSA stated.
There were no injuries and Cruise has determined that another incident such as this would not recur after a software update on all affected vehicles on March 25, the filing states. Cruise said it decided to report it and do the recall out of caution and for public transparency.
“We will undoubtedly continue to discover ways in which we can improve,” Vogt said in the blog. “These continuous improvements are likely to make voluntary recalls commonplace. We believe this is one of the great benefits of autonomous vehicles compared to human drivers; our entire fleet of AVs is able to rapidly improve, and we are able to carefully monitor that progress over time.”
GM looks to expand Cruise beyond its current locations, which are San Francisco, Austin, Texas, and Phoenix. Cruise’s total fleet consists of about 300 self-driving Bolts across all three cities.
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GM plans to start building the Origin at Factory Zero in Detroit/Hamtramck this year but needs approval from NHTSA to put the vehicles on the roads. The government approval depends on how satisfactorily GM answers some questions about the operational safety of the cars Cruise already has out, which have caused traffic backups and other public safety disruptions even before this bus collision.
GM’s request to build and deploy the Origin, a small bus-like vehicle to carry up to six people without a driver, is still pending, NHTSA said. GM wants to put 5,000 Origins in cities nationwide to help Cruise deliver on its goal of $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2025.
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.