Autonomous Vehicle Company Signs Deferred Prosecution Agreement for October 2023 Pedestrian Crash and Drift-Related Conduct

November 18, 2024 – SAN FRANCISCO – Cruise LLC, autonomous vehicle company based in San Francisco Francisco agreed to settle a criminal charge in federal court for providing a false record to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to obstruct, impede, or influence the investigation of a crash involving one of Cruise’s autonomous vehicles. The criminal complaint filed today said Cruise was charged with the crime, which he agreed to resolve through a deferred prosecution agreement and payment of a $500,000 criminal fine.

“Federal laws and regulations are in place to protect public safety on our roads. “Companies with self-driving vehicles that seek to share our roadways and crosswalks need to be completely honest in their reports to regulators,” said Martha Boersch, Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division.

“Today’s deferred prosecution agreement holds Cruise, LLC and its employees accountable for their lack of integrity in the federal compliance case,” said Cory LeGars, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG). , Western Region. “Together with our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners, we will use our collective resources to pursue companies and individuals who knowingly circumvent the enforcement of federal regulations.”

Criminal information alleges Cruise falsified records in a federal investigation under the jurisdiction of NHTSA, within the U.S. Department of Transportation. The criminal investigation and prosecution against Cruise is being resolved by a deferred prosecution agreement in which Cruise acknowledges and accepts responsibility for the accusation in the information.

According to the settlement, the accident occurred on October 2, 2023, in San Francisco, when a driverless Cruise vehicle struck a pedestrian who was thrown into the path of the autonomous vehicle by a human-driven vehicle. The cruise vehicle stopped after passing over the pedestrian. However, since the detection system could not detect that there was a pedestrian under it, the Cruise vehicle tried to drag the woman for more than 20 meters by pulling her to the side of the road with the woman under her. Federal regulations require Cruise to report incidents, including crashes involving Cruise autonomous vehicles, to NHTSA. Cruise later filed a report with NHTSA describing the crash, which made no reference to secondary motion and drag.

In a video conference with NHTSA the next morning, Cruise employees provided a verbal summary of the crash that did not include an explanation for the drift. Cruise employees attempted to show video of the crash showing the drift, but due to technical difficulties, the portion of the video showing the drift was not played. That afternoon, Cruise filed a 1-day report with NHTSA that specifically required “a written description of pre-crash, crash, and post-crash details.” Cruise’s narration skipped the drag. This omission rendered the report inaccurate and incomplete in light of NHTSA’s requirements. That same day, Cruise employees submitted a copy of the video showing the drift to NHTSA, but Cruise did not correct the crash report or the statement in a later report filed 10 days after the crash.

Under the deferred prosecution agreement, Cruise must pay a $500,000 criminal fine, cooperate with government investigations, implement a Security Compliance Program, and submit annual reports to the United States Attorney’s Office on implementation and improvement.

If Cruise is unable or unwilling to fully comply with its obligations under the agreement during the three-year term of the agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office may prosecute the alleged offense.

The government reached this decision regarding Cruise based on a number of factors, including the nature and seriousness of his criminal conduct; Cruise’s timely notification to the government of an internal investigation and his offer to cooperate after being notified that the government had opened an investigation; Cruise’s cooperation included: (1) conducting a comprehensive internal investigation and publicly disclosing the findings of that investigation; (2) proactive identification of specific issues and facts likely to be of interest to the government; (3) making factual presentations to the government and sharing information that would not otherwise be available to the government; (4) sharing with the government certain privileged documents pursuant to a waiver of limited privilege; (5) making witnesses available for government interviews; and (6) remedial measures, such as ensuring that employees identified as responsible for the conduct in question are no longer employed by Cruise, and operational improvements made by Cruise as set forth in the deferred prosecution agreement.

The announcement was made by Martha Boersch, Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cory LeGars, Special Agent in Charge of the DOT-OIG Western District, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert K. Tripp.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Noah Stern and Lloyd Farnham are prosecuting the case with assistance from Maryam Beros. The allegation is the result of an investigation by DOT-OIG and the FBI.