GM’s self-driving Cruise unit has submitted to federal regulators a voluntary recall for a software update in 300 automated trucks after one of them crashed into the back of a city bus in San Francisco.
Cruz said in a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it initiated the recall because in rare circumstances the software can inaccurately predict the movement of “articulated” vehicles.
No injuries were reported in the March 23 low-speed crash in which a rear-mounted robottaxi cruise finished an articulated bus of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority. Cruise’s self-driving software fails to accurately predict the bus’s movement and hits the back after braking too late. Cruz said the accident resulted in minor damage to the front fender and caused no injuries.
“Fender dampers like this rarely happen to our self-driving vehicles, but this incident was unique,” Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt wrote in a blog post Friday. “We do not expect our cars to crash into the back of a city bus under any circumstances, so even one such incident deserved immediate and careful consideration.”
Vogt went on to explain how Cruise’s engineers responded to the crash and provide some details about her investigation. The company updated the software on March 25th and said the issue has been corrected.
Last September, Cruise reported a recall and software update in 80 of its robots after an accident in June. The crash, which resulted in minor injuries to two riders, received national attention because it occurred the day after Cruz received final clearance from California regulators to market the driverless robotics service.
Cruz said in the regulatory filing that the software recall was issued due to a “rare circumstance” in which the automated driving system caused the driverless robot — which did not have a human safety driver behind the wheel — to brake hard while performing an unprotected leaving turn.
Cruz said in an emailed statement last September that it made the voluntary filing for the sake of transparency to the public and added that it related to an earlier version of the program and did not affect or change its current operations down the road.