A Cruise robotaxi was involved in a crash with an emergency vehicle in San Francisco late on Thursday, the General Motors unit said, a week after a California agency voted to allow expanded operations of autonomous vehicle services in the city.
“One of our cars entered the intersection on a green light and was struck by an emergency vehicle that appeared to be en route to an emergency scene,” Cruise said on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Initial investigation shows the collision occurred when a fire truck was operating in an emergency with its forward facing red lights and siren on, the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement to Reuters.
The police did not confirm if a case had been registered against Cruise but said the sole passenger in the autonomous vehicle (AV) was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The San Francisco Fire Department said the collision was under investigation without providing further details.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week voted to allow robotaxis from Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo to operate at all hours of the day throughout San Francisco and charge passengers for rides despite strong opposition from residents and city agencies.
The two have been running robotaxi tests limited by times and geographic areas within San Francisco.
City Attorney David Chiu asked the CPUC on Thursday to halt its decision while the city files for a re-hearing. “We have seen that this technology is not yet ready, and poor AV performance has interfered with the life-saving operations of first responders. San Francisco will suffer serious harms from this unfettered expansion,” he said in a statement.
Cruise said in the post it was “deeply mindful of the well-being of the first responders” and that it was investigating to better understand the performance of its vehicles.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said on Friday that it has asked Cruise to immediately reduce its active fleet of operating vehicles by 50% until the investigation is complete and Cruise takes appropriate corrective actions to improve road safety. Cruise has agreed to a 50% reduction, it added.
“The DMV reserves the right, following investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits” if it is determined to be an unreasonable risk to public safety, the regulator said in a statement.
