Federal Regulators Press Cruise for Answers on Shutdowns and Traffic Disruptions in San Francisco

Federal regulators are asking Cruise for more information about its technology and its performance on public streets as they decide whether to allow deployment of the company's Origin self-driving vehicle. The Origin has no driver's seat, no brake pedal and no steering wheel.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) made the request after San Francisco officials argued that Cruise vehicles have caused a range of traffic problems and that the new model could make matters worse. Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, is seeking a temporary exemption from federal motor vehicle safety standards for the Origin, which has no manual steering controls and seats six adults facing each other.

In a letter to Hoang Ngo, a vehicle safety manager for General Motors, an NHTSA official said the agency is still reviewing the application but needs answers to additional questions about the vehicle's safety and operations before ruling.

The questions include how Cruise centrally tracks its vehicles in operation, detailed information on cases when vehicles shut down or enter a fail-safe condition, and how quickly the company responds when vehicles fail or stop. Regulators also want to know when Cruise contacts first responders or sends its own crews, whether entry and exit systems avoid affecting other road users, and when a vehicle chooses to stop in the middle of a lane rather than pull over to the curb.

The agency also asked about the cause of an incident last June, when a cluster of 13 Cruise vehicles stopped on a busy San Francisco street, and about any technology changes made to prevent a repeat.

Hannah Lindow, a Cruise spokesperson, said the company appreciates NHTSA moving the petition forward. "We will continue working closely with the agency to ensure the safe and responsible deployment of the Origin, the first purpose-built passenger AV set to be manufactured and deployed in the United States," she said. Lindow added that Cruise is currently the only company to have sought NHTSA review for a purpose-built autonomous vehicle.

In September, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) took the unusual step of taking their concerns about disruption on city streets directly to federal authorities. Their 39-page letter to NHTSA recommended data reporting on vehicle failures that block roadways and on company response times, along with collaboration with city authorities on pickup and drop-off locations. It also raised the concern that a failed Origin might have to be towed away, which could cause further disruption. In December, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution backing that position.

City officials have limited statutory power over the technology, since self-driving services are mainly regulated at the state level. The Department of Motor Vehicles permits driverless vehicles on public streets, while the California Public Utilities Commission governs passenger services. Reflecting that complexity, Cruise recently received a DMV permit to test the Origin on public roads even as NHTSA raises further questions.

Last month, transit officials wrote to the CPUC to protest efforts by Cruise and Waymo to expand their hours and geographic reach across most of the city, including the dense downtown core. Their letter identified 92 unique incidents between May 29 and Dec. 31, mainly involving Cruise. These included stopped vehicles blocking buses, near-misses with trains, and one case in which a firefighter smashed a car window to stop a Cruise vehicle from encroaching on an active fire scene.

Cruise, for its part, reported that its commercial service quadrupled its rides and miles from the previous quarter between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, without any major collisions. DMV records show Cruise vehicles were involved in four accidents in that period, but only one occurred while the car was in driverless autonomous mode.