GM's Cruise to resume robotaxi tests on city roads in coming weeks, Bloomberg reports

[February 23, 2024]  (Reuters) -General Motors' self-driving car unit Cruise is preparing to resume testing its robotaxis on public roads with safety drivers in the coming weeks, with Houston and Dallas as potential locations, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

A self-driving GM Bolt EV is seen during a media event where Cruise, GM's autonomous car unit, showed off its self-driving cars in San Francisco, California, U.S. November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo

Cruise suspended its U.S. operations in October after an incident in San Francisco, where one of its robotaxis dragged a pedestrian struck by another car.

"We have not set a timeline for deployment. Our goal is to relaunch in one city with manually driven vehicles and supervised testing as soon as possible once we have taken steps to rebuild trust with regulators and the public," Cruise spokesperson Sara Autio said in a statement to Reuters.

The company is meeting with officials in select markets to "gather information, share updates and rebuild trust," the spokesperson said.

Reuters has reported that Cruise is seeking to relaunch its service and considering Houston and Dallas as potential locations to resume testing with as few as 10 cars in each city and no passengers.

Labor unions and lawmakers have recently called for stricter regulation of autonomous vehicles after accidents involving self-driving taxis from GM and Alphabet's Waymo.

In January, Cruise said the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating the accident involving its robotaxi in October.

(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Savio D'Souza)

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