GM Backed Self Driving Car Service Cruise Involved In Accident That Injured Many People

GM-backed autonomous driving company Cruise has been involved in an accident with a Toyota Prius which resulted in injuries to occupants of both vehicles. This crash comes just one day after regulators in California gave Cruise the permit to operate its autonomous car service in the US state. The California Public Utilities Commission had ruled that Cruise was allowed to collect fares from passengers taking rides in a car which had no human safety driver behind the wheel. This was the first permit of its kind in the state something that Alphabet-backed Waymo also doesn’t have.

It seems that Cruise autonomous car turned left in front of an oncoming Prius which happened at an intersection. Cruise claims that the autonomous car stopped before taking a turn and was sitting still when the Prius hit it. Cruise claims that the driver of the Toyota was overspeeding. It also noted that the Prius was also in the wrong lane and the car went straight through the intersection.

The San Francisco police department hasn’t officially confirmed what Cruise claims of this incident.

"Many people have a word for a driver who cuts in front of them and then stops in the road, and it's not a polite or charitable word. There are a lot of unknowns here. We don't know if the Prius driver intended to turn right but then swerved to try and avoid the crash with the stationary vehicle, for example. There are just a lot of unknowns,” said Carnegie Mellon University professor and autonomous car safety expert Phil Koopman.

Cruise confirmed that the autonomous car was in autonomous mode when the crash happened. That being said it didn’t confirm who the passengers were in its car — whether they were safety drivers, employees or passengers.