At a hearing Tuesday, an administrative judge criticized officials at the autonomous vehicle company for failing to admit its car hit a woman.
At a hearing Tuesday, a California Public Utilities Commission administrative judge took Cruise to task for its executives’ failure to acknowledge that one of its self-driving vehicles had hit and dragged a woman 20 feet in downtown San Francisco in the immediate aftermath of an October accident.
CPUC administrative law judge Robert Mason III likened company officials’ decision to repeatedly avoid owning up to the role its vehicle played in the incident to Eddie Haskell, the character in the 1950s era TV series “Leave it to Beaver,” who frequently caused trouble but usually managed to avoid getting caught. “It was like someone who has the facts and stands there and doesn’t provide the facts, and ‘Shame on you for not asking for the full facts!” Mason said at the hearing at the CPUC’s auditorium in The City. “I appreciate you are making some corrective actions, but at the same time, I’m just sort of bothered when I look at the totality of the facts.”“It was regrettable. It was a mistake,” said Craig Glidden, president and chief administrative officer at Cruise. “Cruise is attempting to make right the mistake.” In a series of meetings with various regulators on October 3, the day after the accident, company officials, including Matt Wood, Cruise’s director of systems integrity, failed to alert public officials that its car had hit the woman, according to an independent report into the incident and its aftermath by San Francisco-based law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. It wasn’t until Cruise’s last meeting that day, with San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency and members of The City’s police and fire departments, that government officials themselves realized from watching a video provided by the company that Cruise’s vehicle had collided with the woman, according to that report. What’s more, in the days following the accident, officials at the GM-owned startup declined to update the press release they initially issued in the wake of the incident to acknowledge that the company’s autonomous vehicle had struck the woman. Company officials also repeatedly declined in their communications with the CPUC to acknowledge that the car had struck and dragged the woman. Ex // Top Stories Trailblazing SoMa bar AsiaSF, safe space for trans community, to close The nightclub and restaurant’s last day will be March 31, the International Transgender Day of Visibility 'Mere Mortals' breaks barriers in San Francisco Ballet's new era “Mere Mortals,” which runs through Feb. 1, is Tamara Rojo’s first commission as the ballet's artistic director Will these key trends continue in The City's Point-in-Time Count? As San Francisco documents The City’s unhoused population, all eyes are on how the data in 2024 compares to its predecessors In the wake of the incident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s permit to operate its vehicles without drivers. The CPUC suspended the company’s robotaxi permit, effectively removing all Cruise cars from city streets. The Tuesday hearing was focused on Cruise’s proposal to settle its dispute with the commission and avoid more severe sanctions. As part of its proposal, the company offered to provide to the CPUC the same kinds of collision reports it files with the DMV and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and to report monthly to the CPUC incidents in which its vehicles halt their autonomous driving mode and end up blocking roads, bike lands or transit lanes. The company also offered to pay $75,000 into the state’s general fund and provide the CPUC the same answers it gives the DMV to questions related to its attempt to reinstate its permit. At the hearing, Mason took issue with the proposed payment, noting that he had strongly suggested previously that the company pay at least $112,500.Glidden immediately upped its payment offer.
Please follow us on Google to support us United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Cruise owner seeks $121m tax refund from San FranciscoThe owner of Cruise wants San Francisco to refund more than $121 million in taxes, interest and penalties, it said in an amended lawsuit filed against The City in state court last month.
Read more »
North Dakota Judge Allows Enforcement of Abortion Ban in Medical EmergenciesA North Dakota judge ruled that the state can continue to enforce its abortion ban even in situations where an abortion is necessary to preserve the pregnant person’s life or health—at least for now.
Read more »
Delaware Judge Throws Out Elon Musk's 2018 Pay PackageA Delaware state court judge has ruled that the 2018 pay package of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, which made him one of the richest people in the world, is invalid. Musk and the Tesla board failed to prove that the compensation plan was fair. The stock options Musk received as part of the package are worth $51 billion today.
Read more »
Federal Judge Postpones Trump's Trial on Election Plot ChargesA federal judge in Washington formally postponed Donald Trump's March trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election as a key legal appeal from the former president remains unresolved in the courts.
Read more »
Judge Demands Trump Explain His Accountant Allen Weisselberg's Apparent LiesTrump accountant Allen Weisselberg is apparently working out a deal addressing lies he told on the stand in the New York bank fraud trial. Now Trump is in even more trouble.
Read more »
‘Historic, landmark decision’: Judge Michael Luttig reacts to Trump immunity rulingThis is additional taxonomy that helps us with analytics
Read more »