Cruise testing continues in Japan, Dubai, even as vehicles parked in US
By Greg Bensinger
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Days after General Motors’ Cruise self-driving car unit pulled all of its vehicles off the roads in the U.S. for a safety review, it continues to test them on public roads in Dubai and Japan, Reuters has learned.
Cruise this week said it had paused all car trips in the U.S. – including ones where a safety driver was in the vehicle — and expanded the scope of its internal investigation following an October accident that caught the attention of regulators. Earlier this month, it suspended all fully autonomous rides and recalled 950 vehicles.
A spokesman for Cruise confirmed its vehicles overseas, identical to those in the U.S., were still undergoing public testing abroad, saying it was a “small pilot.”
Asked why it was safe for those to be on public roads in Japan and Dubai, while apparently not safe in the U.S., the spokesman said, “that's the decision we made.” He did not provide details on how many vehicles were being tested in those regions.
Cruise needs to clarify the difference between testing abroad and in the U.S., said Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who has studied transportation issues.
«It's reasonable to ask why they think it's safe to have these cars on the road in other parts of the world, if they are pulling them off the road here,» he said. «Cruise needs to explain the difference.»
He noted that even with a driver at the helm, no autonomous vehicle is perfectly safe, citing the 2018 Uber (NYSE:UBER) accident in Arizona where a woman was killed after being struck by one of the company’s self-driving cars that had a driver.
The Cruise cars in the U.S. were recalled because the collision detection subsystem may respond improperly
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