— A Cruise automated driving system (ADS) recall has closed a federal investigation into sudden hard braking incidents.
The Cruise driverless cars were also stopping in the middle of traffic.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the investigation in December 2022 after Cruise driverless cars with onboard human supervisors were being rear-ended in traffic.
Multiple reports also allege unsupervised (no onboard humans) Cruise vehicles stopped moving forward while in automated mode.
NHTSA discovered 7,632 hard braking events commanded by the Cruise automated systems based on rate of deceleration which contributed to 10 crashes. According to the government, four crashes "involved a vulnerable road user and resulted in injury."
A Cruise automated driving system recall was announced in August for “unexpected braking maneuvers [that] could occur if the ADS inaccurately predicts the immediate future path of the close-following actors, experiences diminished sensor precision from the close proximity of the close-following actors, or erroneously responds to a perceived risk ahead of the AV unrelated to the rear actor.”
Cruise provided evidence the recall software updates fixed the hard braking incidents, and NHTSA closed its investigation based on the automated driving system recall.