In recent events, Cruise LLC, a front-runner in autonomous vehicle technology based out of San Francisco, has struck a deal in federal court after admitting to furnishing a false record intended to influence a government probe. This charge is tied to a tragic incident involving one of the company’s driverless cars that fatally wounded a pedestrian on the streets of San Francisco. The resolution involves a deferred prosecution agreement complemented by a $500,000 criminal penalty, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, on October 2, 2023, a Cruise vehicle operating autonomously struck and ran over a pedestrian after she was hurled into its path by another vehicle. Yet, the company’s subsequent report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) notably omitted details of how the vehicle, failing to detect the pedestrian underneath, dragged the victim over 20 feet as it tried to move to the side of the road. Martha Boersch, Chief of the Office of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division, emphasized that “Companies with self-driving cars that seek to share our roads and crosswalks must be fully truthful in their reports to their regulators.”
This development has put Cruise LLC under strict scrutiny for the accuracy and completeness of its incident reporting, which is a federal requirement. The deceptive report was initially followed up with a video to NHTSA that inadvertently skipped the portion showing the dragging due to technical issues. Cruise’s employees did not rectify the report even when providing authorities with correct video evidence. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the vehicular incident resulted in Cruise committing to significant operational improvements and ensuring the implicated employees are no longer with the company.
Under the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement, aside from the hefty fine, Cruise is obligated to cooperate fully with ongoing investigations, implement a robust Safety Compliance Program, and submit annual performance and remediation reports to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Failure to meet these requirements within the agreement’s three-year term could lead to resumed prosecution. These measures remind us of the importance of corporate accountability.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Noah Stern and Lloyd Farnham, with investigatory support from the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Cruise has consented to the financial penalty and stringent conditions are part of a broader push to ensure public safety aligns with the rapid advancement of autonomous vehicle technology.
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