Cruise accused of ‘chaotic’ security tradition by alleged whisleblower in letter to regulators

An individual claiming to be a present Cruise worker raised considerations with California regulators concerning the self-driving tech firm’s security tradition and readiness to start business operations in San Francisco.

The letter arrived on the California Public Utilities Fee’s inbox for whistleblowers Could 19, two weeks earlier than the regulators cleared Cruise’s robotaxis for these business providers.

The alleged whistleblower described circumstances “indicative of a really chaotic setting” during which not less than one documented security concern went unaddressed for months. The individual additional stated data from visitors crashes involving the corporate’s automobiles was hidden from workers who labored on crucial security techniques.

Primarily based on these experiences, clusters of vehicles getting stuck at intersections, and discussions with fellow workers, the individual wrote, “workers typically don’t imagine we’re able to launch to the general public, however there may be worry of admitting this due to expectations from management and buyers.”

Cruise is majority owned by General Motors.

A spokesperson for the CPUC stated the company is “trying into the considerations raised within the letter,” although didn’t say whether or not commissioners had been conscious of its existence once they voted on June 2 to approve Cruise’s software to start business service.

Nor did the company say whether or not it had verified the nameless letter was, in actual fact, a Cruise worker. The individual had written they might help in verifying employment standing and id. Automotive Information reached out to the nameless author, however they didn’t return a request for remark.

The CPUC’s evaluation was first reported Thursday by The Wall Road Journal.

Cruise says the corporate has a clear relationship with each the CPUC and different regulatory our bodies and that their executives meet with regulatory representatives on a frequent and ongoing foundation.

“Our security file is tracked, reported and revealed by a number of authorities businesses,” stated Drew Pusateri, a Cruise spokesperson. “We’re pleased with it and it speaks for itself.”

Information of the letter’s existence comes amid a spate of incidents involving Cruise robotaxis working in San Francisco.

In April, a San Francisco police officer pulled over a Cruise automobile as a result of it drove at evening with out its headlights on. Then the automobile repositioned itself earlier than the visitors cease was full. Later that month, a Cruise automobile blocked the trail of a San Francisco Hearth Division hearth truck en path to a blaze, slowing its response to a hearth that resulted in accidents.

In June, one of many firm’s robotaxis was involved in a crash that resulted in injuries, prompting an investigation from federal security regulators. On June 28, a number of Cruise automobiles clustered at an intersection and blocked visitors till they had been eliminated by workers.

Within the letter, the alleged whistleblower stated these clustering incidents, identified internally as Car Retrieval Occasions or VREs, occur with regularity.

The individual wrote they’ve direct information of those incidents and that, whereas generally they are often solved with distant help, “there have been some instances the place fallback techniques have additionally failed and it was not potential to remotely maneuver the automobile exterior of the lanes they had been blocking till they had been bodily towed from their location to a facility.”

Past these incidents, the individual wrote {that a} documented security concern went unaddressed for six months, suggesting {that a} course of they thought would take days to deal with as a substitute “would stay in triage indefinitely.”

That firsthand expertise stood in distinction to aspirational security objectives set by Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt, who the nameless letter author stated inspired staff to share safety-related considerations. Indicators posted all through the corporate’s workplace additional inspired staff to make use of inside processes for relaying questions of safety.

The individual wrote they believed the corporate’s method was not “in keeping with a safety-first tradition.”

Pusateri, the Cruise spokesperson, stated 94 p.c of respondents agreed with the assertion that “Security is a prime precedence right here” in an April 2022 inside survey of greater than 2,000 Cruise workers.