Cruise pauses entire driverless fleet after Calif. suspended permits

Cruise is pausing its entire driverless fleet in an effort to “take steps to rebuild public trust,” the San Francisco-based company announced on X on Thursday night.

“The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust,” Cruise said on X, formerly Twitter. “Part of this involves taking a hard look inwards and at how we do work at Cruise, even if it means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult.

“In that spirit, we have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust.”

The company, which is owned by General Motors, has been testing its fleet in San Francisco for years, offering paid taxi-style driverless rides for months. The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s permits on Tuesday after a series of high-profile incidents, including several run-ins with emergency vehicles and one crash where a driverless car ran over a pedestrian who’d been hit by a separate human-operated vehicle.

In the post on X on Thursday night, the company said its decision to pause its entire driverless operations was not related to any on-road incidents.

“We think it’s the right thing to do during a period when we need to be extra vigilant when it comes to risk, relentlessly focused on safety, & taking steps to rebuild public trust,” Cruise wrote.

SFGATE tech reporter Stephen Council contributed to this report.