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In
December, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered
Cruise to appear at a Feb. 6 hearing, citing it for misleading
the commission "through omission" on the extent and seriousness
of the accident and for "misleading public comments" on
interactions with the agency.
Cruise, which has fired nine executives, including its chief
operating officer and chief legal and policy officer, over the
October crash, asked for the hearing to be deferred and sought
an alternative mode of dispute resolution.
Cruise, which has retained law firm Quinn Emanuel to examine its
response to the crash, said in a filing on Friday the
investigation was expected to be completed with findings made
public before Feb. 6. Cruise also offered to boost its reporting
of collisions to the commission as part of its settlement offer.
Cruise said it "is committed to undertaking significant process
improvements with respect to its interactions with regulators"
and "committed to increased transparency, cooperation, and
rebuilding regulatory trust with the commission."
The robotaxi company pulled all its U.S. vehicles from
self-driving testing after California suspended its driverless
testing permit following the October accident. The unit's CEO
Kyle Vogt and co-founder Dan Kan resigned in November.
Cruise said in December it was cutting 24% of its workforce,
laying off 900 of its 3,800 employees.
On Oct. 2, a pedestrian hit by another vehicle was thrown into
the path of a self-driving Cruise vehicle and dragged for 20
feet (6 meters). California suspended the testing permit, and
Cruise halted all U.S. testing operations.
The commission said in December a Cruise official telephoned a
commission analyst the day after the crash and informed her of
the collision but "omitted that the Cruise AV had engaged in the
pullover maneuver which resulted in the pedestrian being dragged
an additional 20 feet at 7 mph."
GM said in November it would cut costs at Cruise, which lost
more than $700 million in the third quarter and more than $8
billion since 2016.
In October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles ordered
Cruise to remove its driverless cars from state roads, calling
them a risk to the public and saying the company had
misrepresented the safety of its technology. The same month, the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an
investigation into pedestrian risks at Cruise.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
and William Mallard)
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