GM’s Cruise recalls 300 self-driving vehicles to update software after bus crash

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – General Motors’ (GM.N) robotaxi device Cruise LLC is recalling the automated driving computer software in 300 motor vehicles after a single of its driverless autos crashed into the again of a San Francisco bus.

The March 23 collision was the fault of a software error in a Cruise automated car or truck (AV) that inaccurately predicted the movement of an articulated San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority bus, Cruise said on Friday. The crash triggered average hurt to the Cruise but did not final result in any accidents.

Cruise in a Countrywide Freeway Targeted traffic Protection Administration (NHTSA) filing on Friday mentioned the software program was updated on March 25 to tackle fears that the procedure “might inaccurately forecast the movement of articulated autos this kind of as buses and tractor trailers.”

“Fender benders like this almost never happen to our AVs, but this incident was exceptional,” Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said in a web site publish. “We do not anticipate our vehicles to operate into the back of a city bus under any circumstances, so even a solitary incident like this was deserving of instant and thorough study.”

Cruise in a separate submitting with California stated the vehicle was touring on Haight Street when a bus stopped ahead of it and the Cruise struck the rear bumper.

Vogt explained, “The bus’s habits was reasonable and predictable. It pulled out into a lane of traffic from a bus stop and then came to a quit. While our car did brake in response, it used the brakes way too late and rear-finished the bus at about 10 mph.”

The driverless vehicle’s check out of the bus’s entrance part became completely blocked as the bus pulled out in entrance of the AV.

“Due to the fact the AV had previously observed the front section and acknowledged that the bus could bend, it predicted that the bus would transfer as connected sections with the rear section adhering to the predicted route of the entrance segment,” Vogt explained, incorporating that it was the only crash of its type that the enterprise has seasoned.

Cruise stated right after the update it identified the crash would not recur.

Cruise in September disclosed that it recalled and current software program in 80 self-driving autos following a June crash in San Francisco that still left two men and women injured.

NHTSA previous calendar year claimed the program could “improperly predict” an oncoming vehicle’s path.

NHTSA in December opened a formal basic safety probe into the Cruise autonomous driving technique soon after it been given reports of incidents in which self-driving Cruise autos “might engage in inappropriately tricky braking or turn into immobilized.”

Reporting by David Shepardson Modifying by David Goodman, Chizu Nomiyama and Mark Porter

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