Cruise, a company owned by General Motors, has started testing its self-driving cars on public roads again after a break since October. The testing stopped because there were some accidents and problems with the cars, like one time when a car hit a person and dragged them along the road. Before, they were testing the cars in San Francisco, but now they’re starting in Phoenix, Arizona. They plan to expand slowly around the city, making sure it’s safe before they do.
“We have procedures in place to ensure our AVs [autonomous vehicles] are appropriately maintained and that new software is thoroughly tested and validated through a measured release process prior to deploying the fleet.”
– Cruise
They’re making sure the cars are safe to use by having human drivers watch over them while they drive. This is because they want to be very careful and avoid any accidents.
Even though Cruise is starting to test again, they’re not letting people ride in the cars as taxis yet. They want to be sure everything is safe before they do that. They’re also being careful because people in some places, like British Columbia, don’t trust self-driving cars yet. They’re worried about accidents happening.
In California, they’re thinking of making laws that would punish self-driving cars if they break traffic rules. This is because people want the companies to be responsible if their cars do something wrong. They hope this will make companies work harder to make sure their cars are safe.
Even though Cruise is testing again, there are still many challenges with self-driving technology. Other companies like Waymo and Tesla are also having problems. This shows that it will take a long time before self-driving cars are ready for everyone to use. But Cruise starting testing again, even with humans watching over, is an important step towards making self-driving cars a reality.
