Cruise, the self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors, tried to send a 90-second video to regulators of an incident in which one of its driverless cars dragged a pedestrian 20 feet but was hampered by \u201cinternet connectivity issues,\u201d according to a report compiled by a law firm investigating the incident. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, was hired by Cruise to determine whether its executives misled regulators in the aftermath of the October 2nd incident<\/a> in which a hit-and-run driver struck a pedestrian, knocking her into the path of a driverless Cruise vehicle. Its conclusions were detailed in a nearly 200-page report<\/a> that was released today. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In response to the crash, the California Department of Motor Vehicles\u00a0suspended Cruise\u2019s license<\/a>\u00a0to operate its vehicles in the state. The department also accused the company of withholding portions of the video of the incident that showed its vehicle dragging the pedestrian to the curb in an attempt to pull over. Cruise denies the allegation, claiming it showed the agency the whole video.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cInternet connectivity issues\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The law firm\u2019s report appears to support both claims. The firm concludes that \u201cthe weight of the evidence\u201d confirms that Cruise \u201cplayed or attempted to play the Full Video\u201d depicting its car dragging the woman to the curb in its October 3rd briefing with regulators and other government officials. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHowever, in three of these meetings, internet connectivity issues likely precluded or hampered them from seeing the Full Video clearly and fully,\u201d the report states. \u201cAnd Cruise failed to augment the Full Video by affirmatively pointing out the pullover maneuver and dragging of the pedestrian.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Over 100 Cruise employees were aware of the pedestrian-dragging incident prior to the October 3rd meeting with the San Francisco mayor\u2019s office, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the DMV, and other government officials. But Cruise said nothing about the pedestrian being dragged, instead \u201cletting the video speak for itself.\u201d A bad internet connection prevented that from happening. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBecause Cruise adopted that approach, it did not verbally point out these facts,\u201d the firm says. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the immediate hours after the incident, some Cruise employees were unaware that the vehicle dragged the pedestrian while attempting to pull over and issued a press statement and began sharing an early video with journalists. But after becoming aware, Cruise failed to update its statement or share the full video of the incident. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cruise said nothing about the pedestrian being dragged, preferring to let the video speak for itself<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Likewise, Cruise\u2019s leadership was \u201cfixated\u201d on correcting the media narrative that the Cruise vehicle, and not the hit-and-run driver, had caused the accident. This \u201cmyopic focus\u201d led the company to omit details about the role its own vehicle played in injuring the pedestrian. Cruise\u2019s failure to correct the record led regulators and the media to accuse the company of misleading them, the firm states. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Largely, a culture of antagonism toward regulators at Cruise helped contribute to these failings. In its interviews with employees, Cruise \u201cobserved too much of an \u2018us versus them\u2019 attitude… which is not indicative of a healthy, mutually productive relationship,\u201d says the Quinn Emanuel report. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The firm says it is a \u201cfundamentally flawed approach\u201d to assume a video can \u201cspeak for itself\u201d and remove the need to disclose all details to regulators and government officials. \u201cAs one Cruise employee stated in a text message to another employee about this matter, our \u2018leaders have failed us,\u2019\u201d the report states. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n A number of executives have resigned<\/a> in the wake of the incident, including co-founders Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan. The company paused its driverless operations nationwide, appointed a new chief safety officer,\u00a0and recalled all 950 of its vehicles<\/a>. Nearly a quarter of Cruise employees have been laid off<\/a> as GM pulls back on some of the company\u2019s funding. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe are focused on advancing our technology and earning back public trust,\u201d Cruise said in a blog post in response to the report<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n