Cruise Plans To Restart Driverless Operation In Phoenix For Data Collection

Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, is planning to resume manual driving in certain cities to collect road data and create maps, as it prepares to resume autonomous operations for its robotaxi service following a fatal accident six months ago.

According to Cruise, the process of utilizing human-operated vehicles to collect road data and create maps will commence in Phoenix, where the company has a significant workforce. This will provide information on the location where driverless operations will eventually resume.

The information to be gathered will encompass speed limits, stop signs, traffic lights, lane markings, and exclusive right turn lanes.

The Justice Department announced in January that they are conducting an investigation into General Motors, following a collision that resulted in serious injury to a pedestrian and disrupted the company’s plans for self-driving cars.

The recent revelation of a Justice Department investigation outlined in a report marks a new development in a series of events that started in October. It all began when a pedestrian was hit by a human-driven vehicle in San Francisco and then dragged 20 feet (6 meters) by a robotaxi operated by GM’s Cruise subsidiary.

The accident caused Cruise’s license to use its autonomous fleet in California to be revoked by regulators, leading to a shakeup in its management and a downsizing of its employees. This also prompted GM to scale back its previous goals in self-driving technology. The lack of important information from Cruise about the Oct. 2 event raised suspicions of a concealment, potentially resulting in a penalty of $1.5 million. Eventually, Cruise settled by paying $112,500.

Cruise has not provided an estimated time frame when their driverless autonomous service will be in operation in Phoenix.