Robotaxi company Cruise has taken the first step to resuming autonomous driving operations after it suspended self-driving testing following an accident in California last year.

It is using human-driven vehicles – with the autonomous driving system switched off – to gather mapping and road information in selected cities, starting in Phoenix.

The General Motors subsidiary suspended operation after an accident in San Francisco in October in which a Cruise self-driving car dragged a pedestrian for about six metres (www.iotm2mcouncil.org/iot-library/news/connected-transportation-news/california-halts-cruise-autonomous-vehicle-trials).

In a blog post (www.getcruise.com/news/blog/2024/cruise-resumes-manual-driving-as-next-step-in-return-to-driverless-mission), the company said its goal was to resume driverless operations.

“As we continue working to rebuild trust and determine the city where we will scale driverless, we also remain focused on continuing to improve our performance and overall safety approach,” said the post. “To that end, Cruise is resuming manual driving to create maps and gather road information in select cities, starting in Phoenix. This work is done using human-driven vehicles without autonomous systems engaged, and is a critical step for validating our self-driving systems as we work towards returning to our driverless mission. This will help inform where we ultimately will resume driverless operations.”

Cruise has a strong history in Phoenix and it is home to a large number of the company’s employees. It is a city that supports autonomous vehicles and transportation innovation, and Phoenix leaders strive to ensure the metro area is an incubator for advanced technology.

“We plan to expand this effort to other select cities as we continue to engage with officials and community leaders,” said the post.

Over the past several weeks, Cruise has communicated with officials, first responders and community leaders in cities it has previously operated in to share updates on its path forward. The company says it is committed to deploying its technology safely in collaboration with officials and communities at every step.

Cruise has established new leadership, and engaged more closely with advisors from GM to support safety, legal, regulatory and communications functions. It has hired Steve Kenner (www.getcruise.com/news/pressrelease/2024/cruise-appoints-chief-safety-officer) as its chief safety officer to guide improved safety processes and procedures throughout the organisation.

The company has also set up a cross-disciplinary regulatory team to guide engagement with regulators in regard to incident reporting. And it has reviewed and strengthened internal safety governance processes to incorporate more robust cross-functional review and leadership accountability.

Work is also underway to establish systems and processes for ensuring safe operations across the company including reforming and updating incident response and crisis management protocols to ensure more consistent, effective and transparent response.

It is renewing internal training and reinforcing safety culture systems, as well as re-evaluating and re-establishing its safety target for supervised and driverless operations. And it is re-engaging with first responders to facilitate ongoing trainings for each precinct and fire house in the areas in which it intends to operate.

“We believe AVs will savelives and significantly reduce the number and severity of accidents on America’s and Arizona’s roads every year,” said the post. “AVs will also improvelives, including creating convenient and safe transportation options for the elderly and those with disabilities. As we begin this journey, we look forward to partnering with local communities to jointly achieve our shared mission of making transportation safer for all.”