Cruise LLC, the robotaxi company owned by General Motors Co., recalled its automated-driving system and deployed a software update to part of its fleet after one of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian struck by another car last month.
Cruise submitted the voluntary recall earlier this month, after California suspended the company’s permit to operate driverless vehicles in the state over its handling of the incident. The recall affects 950 automated-driving systems, according to documents posted Wednesday to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.
In its recall report submitted to NHTSA on Nov. 2, Cruise said that in certain circumstances, its driverless software may have led its vehicles to attempt to pull over out of traffic when they should have stayed put. That was the case on Oct. 2, when a separate car hit a pedestrian and propelled the person into the path of a Cruise robotaxi. After initially coming to a stop, Cruise’s vehicle attempted to pull over and dragged the person about 20 feet.
The incident prompted a NHTSA defect investigation. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has accused the company of withholding video footage of the pullover attempt that it says it learned about from NHTSA. Cruise disputed the DMV’s recounting of events, saying it showed DMV officials the full video of the incident several times early last month.
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