A Cruise autonomous robotaxi dragged a pedestrian 20 feet after she was initially struck by a hit-and-run driver and thrown into the robotaxi's path in San Francisco on October 2, 2023.
On October 2, 2023, a pedestrian was struck by a hit-and-run driver in San Francisco and thrown into an adjacent lane where she was hit a second time by a Cruise robotaxi operated by General Motors' self-driving unit. The autonomous vehicle was unable to stop in time and came to rest on top of the pedestrian. When the robotaxi attempted to pull over, it dragged the woman approximately 20 feet at 7 mph before coming to a final stop. The victim was freed using rescue tools by the San Francisco Fire Department and transported to a trauma center in critical condition. She was later discharged from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Cruise reached a settlement with the victim for between $8-12 million. The incident led to regulatory scrutiny, with the California DMV suspending Cruise's driverless taxi permits after determining the company had not been forthcoming about the full details of the incident. Cruise subsequently suspended operations nationwide, laid off 25% of its staff, and CEO Kyle Vogt resigned. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Department of Justice, and Securities and Exchange Commission opened investigations into the company.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that fail to perform reliably or effectively under varying conditions, exposing them to errors and failures that can have significant consequences, especially in critical applications or areas that require moral reasoning.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed