Manila Standard

GM recalls 80 driverless cars after accident

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NEW YORK, United States—General Motor’s autonomous vehicle unit Cruise recalled 80 cars and updated their software after one failed to properly predict the trajectory of an oncoming vehicle.

The company, which is the first to have deployed driverless taxis in San Francisco in June, sent a notice this week to the US agency in charge of road safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administra­tion (NHTSA).

In filings which came to public attention Thursday, Cruise explains that on June 3 one of its cars was hit from the rear by another vehicle after breaking sharply while making an unprotecte­d left turn.

The self-driving vehicle decided “a hard brake was necessary to avoid a severe front-end collision with an oncoming vehicle,” the document said.

Two people were slightly injured, according to a report submitted to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Police determined that the other vehicle was primarily responsibl­e for the incident as it was not in the correct lane and was traveling over the speed limit.

The NHTSA, however, did not fully exonerate Cruise from liability, stating that the software could, “in certain circumstan­ces when making an unprotecte­d left, cause the ADS (automated driving system) to incorrectl­y predict another vehicle’s path or be insufficie­ntly reactive.”

Cruise has modified the software and says were the vehicle to be in the same situation again, it would act differentl­y to avoid error.

Carmakers, led by Tesla, have been working for several years on developmen­t of autonomous driving and driving assistance systems, but progress has been slower than initially hoped.

Waymo, a Cruise rival and subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has offered a ride-hailing program in Phoenix, Arizona for several years.

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