Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors (GM), has announced a recall of 950 driverless cars operating on roads across the United States, with the potential for more recalls to follow, according to a statement from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Wednesday.
The recall is a result of concerns regarding the collision detection subsystem of the Cruise Automated Driving Systems (ADS) software, which may improperly respond following a crash, as reported by the NHTSA. This decision comes in the wake of a recent accident in San Francisco, where a pedestrian was struck by a hit-and-run driver and subsequently hit by a Cruise robotaxi, which failed to stop in time.
To address the issue, Cruise has initiated an over-the-air software update for its entire supervised test fleet. The NHTSA also outlined that all affected driverless vehicles will undergo necessary repairs before they are allowed to return to service.
In a statement to Reuters, GM’s Cruise mentioned that the voluntary recall was prompted by a fresh analysis of its autonomous vehicle’s response to the October 2nd accident. The company has also expressed the possibility of additional recalls in the future.
Cruise’s proactive move follows its decision to halt all operations across the United States last month, prompted by an order from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to remove its driverless cars from state roads. The company currently faces several federal investigations related to the safety of its autonomous vehicles, particularly regarding incidents where the robot cars seemingly failed to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.
Cruise, which operates in various cities, including Phoenix, Arizona; Houston, Austin, and Dallas in Texas; and Miami, Florida, finds itself in a competitive race with Alphabet’s Waymo and other players in the autonomous vehicle industry to bring robot cars to the market.
