During the past month, the rollout of autonomous electric vehicles purpose-built for ride-hailing by General Motors’ subsidiary Cruise has taken a huge hit.

At the end of October, California motor vehicle regulators suspended Cruise’s deployment and driverless testing permits across the state after one of the Cruise vehicles dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco.

As the crash unfolded on October 2, a vehicle with a driver behind the wheel struck a pedestrian, sending him into the path of a Cruise autonomous vehicle. The Cruise stopped but still hit the person. Then the Cruise pulled to the right to get out of traffic, dragging the victim about 20 feet (six meters) forward. He was pinned under one of the Cruise vehicle’s tires and was critically injured.

Cruise says it is recalling all 950 of its autonomous vehicles to update their software so this type of incident will never happen again.

In a statement, Cruise said, “The voluntary software recall addresses circumstances in which the Cruise Collision Detection Subsystem may cause the Cruise AV to attempt to pull over out of traffic instead of remaining stationary when a pullover is not the desired post-collision response.”

Now, Cruise has suspended its driverless operations nationwide after California regulators found that its cars posed a danger to public safety. Safety problems have been piling up for Cruise AVs, but this incident attracted a lot of public attention.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) determined the Cruise vehicles “are not safe for the public’s operation” and also found that “The manufacturer has misrepresented … information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.”

The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps it must take to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction. This decision does not impact the company’s permit for testing with a safety driver.

Then, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSB) made public an October 20 letter in which the agency raised concerns over several hard-braking incidents by Cruise vehicles that resulted in collisions. Safety officials cited two videos where Cruise vehicles came close to pedestrians in crosswalks and appeared to nearly strike them.

In a hearing earlier this year, before the California Public Utilities Commission gave its approval for Cruise to start full-fletched commercial operations in the state, San Francisco’s fire department, police department, and municipal transportation agency compiled a report of at least 600 incidents involving driverless vehicles since June 2022.

One incident may have been deadly. According to San Francisco fire safety officials, on August 14 two Cruise AVs delayed an ambulance transporting a critically injured man to the nearest hospital after he was hit by a car in San Francisco’s Market district. The alleged delay may have cost the man his life as San Francisco Fire Dept. records confirmed that he died due to his injuries 20 to 30 minutes after admission to a local hospital near the accident scene.