General Motors’ driverless vehicle division Cruise is stopping all of its driverless services for the moment, after it had its licence to operate suspended in San Francisco.

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the company’s driverless permits following a collision with a pedestrian in San Francisco earlier this month, after the person had been hit by a human-driven vehicle who then drove away.

In three messages on X (formerly Twitter) overnight, Cruise stated: “The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust. Part of this involves taking a hard look inwards and at how we do work at Cruise, even if it means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult.

“In that spirit, we have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust.

“This isn’t related to any new on-road incidents, and supervised AV operations will continue. We think it’s the right thing to do during a period when we need to be extra vigilant when it comes to risk, relentlessly focused on safety, & taking steps to rebuild public trust.”

The company says that shortly after the collision its team proactively shared information with the DMV and other safety bodies, including the full video filmed from inside the driverless vehicle. It adds it has stayed in close contact with regulators to answer questions and assisted the police with identifying the vehicle of the hit and run driver.

(File picture – Cruise)