In the aftermath of an automobile accident, there are many things you shouldn’t do — and one of them is to supply false information about what just happened. That certainly applies if you were a driver involved in an accident, but it applies just as well to reports submitted by automakers. The GM-owned autonomous vehicle company Cruise recently learned this — and it ended up costing them half a million dollars.
This week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that Cruise had paid $500,000 to settle a federal case. As Engadget’s Steve Dent reports, the settlement follows an incident in October 2023 where one of Cruise’s autonomous vehicles hit a pedestrian and then dragged her for 20 feet.
What’s at issue here is how Cruise responded in the wake of the accident. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cruise spoke with the NHTSA the day after their vehicle hit the pedestrian, but did not mention that the pedestrian had also been dragged behind the vehicle. The company later sent the agency a video of the incident, but did not amend their earlier report; this violated the NHTSA’s guidelines.
Cruise’s $500,000 fine is only part of their settlement. They’ll also need to provide annual updates to the U.S. Attorney’s Office over the next three years and implement a safety compliance program to avoid further prosecution in the matter.
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The pilot program is running for three monthsSpecial Agent-in-Charge Cory LeGars spoke bluntly about the settlement. “Today’s deferred prosecution agreement holds Cruise, LLC and its employees accountable for their lack of candor in a federal regulatory compliance action,” LeGars said. With autonomous vehicles becoming a larger presence on the nation’s roads, hopefully this measure will lead to greater safety for the industry.
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