General Motors' (GM.US) self-driving unit Cruise has admitted to submitting false reports and has been fined $500,000.
1min read General Motors' self-driving car subsidiary Cruise admitted Thursday to submitting a false report to influence a federal investigation and will pay a $500,000 criminal fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Cruise did not disclose key details of a crash in October 2023 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in which an autonomous taxi struck a pedestrian who had been struck by another vehicle and dragged her 20 feet in San Francisco, the Justice Department said.
"Companies with self-driving cars that want to share our roads and crosswalks must be completely truthful in the reports they submit to regulators," said Martha Pohlstein, head of the criminal division of the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco.
Under the three-year agreement, Cruise must cooperate with government investigations, implement a safety compliance plan and provide annual reports to the U.S. attorney's office, and the office can bring charges against Cruise if it does not comply in the next three years.
"Cruise will comply with the requirements of the agreement, and we will continue to move forward under new leadership with a firm commitment to transparency with regulators," Cruise president Craig Glidden said in a statement.
To address the crash and subsequent investigation, Cruise's chief executive and co-founder both resigned, the company cut a quarter of its workforce and fired nine executives, including its chief operating officer and chief legal and policy officer.
In September, Cruise agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle an NHTSA investigation. Cruise must submit a corrective action plan to NHTSA on how it will improve reporting of serious accidents and face stricter reporting requirements for at least two years.
NHTSA is still investigating whether Cruise's autonomous taxis took adequate precautions to protect pedestrians. In August, Cruise recalled 1,200 autonomous taxis due to brake issues.
The company also faces an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cruise has restarted supervised autonomous driving tests in three U.S. cities but abandoned its driverless Origin vehicle. The company said in August it would begin offering autonomous vehicles on ride-hailing platform Uber next year.