Autonomous vehicles have logged millions of road miles. Collectively, companies including Tesla, Alphabet, General Motors, Uber, Baidu and Ford have invested billions of dollars in the technology. Safety records are impressive. But one eye-catching accident is all it takes to spook passengers and regulators.
This week GM’s Cruise announced that it would pause all manned and unmanned robotaxi trips. It will also expand a safety investigation following an accident in San Francisco in which a pedestrian was hit by a vehicle and dragged along the road.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles had already ordered Cruise to take its driverless cars off the roads. The rollback comes just three months after the company triumphed in winning permission to expand its service. It is working with Honda to launch driverless cars in Tokyo by 2026. GM has frequently projected that Cruise revenue could reach $50bn by 2030.