### Robotaxi Incident in San Francisco Leads to Major Shake-up at Cruise
In a concerning event last October, a Cruise robotaxi—an autonomous vehicle developed by General Motors' (GM) subsidiary, Cruise—was involved in a severe collision with a pedestrian in San Francisco.
According to Fortune, Cruise compensated the injured party with a settlement ranging between $8 million and $12 million. The collision, which took place in downtown San Francisco, saw the pedestrian dragged over 20 feet by the self-driving vehicle, resulting in life-threatening injuries. The victim, whose identity has not been disclosed, was initially in critical condition but later discharged from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
In the wake of this incident, significant changes were implemented within Cruise. The CEO resigned, and all testing activities were suspended across the United States. General Motors consequently reduced Cruise's annual budget by $1 billion and made extensive changes to its management team. Financial records indicate that since General Motors' acquisition of Cruise in 2016, the company has incurred losses exceeding $9 billion.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles disclosed that Cruise failed to provide complete footage of a prior incident on October 2nd. During this incident, a human driver struck a woman, who was then dragged by a robotaxi in downtown San Francisco. As a result, the DMV revoked Cruise's permits for driverless taxi operations.
Currently, Cruise is working to reinstate its license to transport passengers autonomously in San Francisco and plans to resume operations in Phoenix soon. The company has recently restarted vehicle testing, albeit with human drivers at the helm.
