GM's Self-Driving Car Division Under Scrutiny From DOJ, SEC

(RTTNews) - Auto giant General Motors (GM) has revealed that its self-driving car division Cruise is under investigation by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission after the October incident involving the company's robotaxi.

The investigation is based on the October 2 accident, where a woman who had been initially hit by a human-driven auto was dragged for around 20 feet by the company's robotaxi, injuring her grievously.

After the incident, the Cruise officials tried to share details of the accident with the regulators through a video, but due to certain "technical issues" the regulators were unable to see the full video clearly. Cruise, then, also failed to provide a verbal description of the incident to the regulators.

In the blog post, GM said that the investigation report from the law firm Quinn Emanuel revealed no evidence that Cruise executives or staff intentionally misled or hid any details from regulators.

Another report by an engineering firm Exponent revealed that the Cruise vehicle had identified hitting the woman as a side-impact collision, the blog post said. Later, Cruise updated its software.

The reports concluded that Cruise failed to handle the incident properly due to "inadequate and uncoordinated internal processes, mistakes in judgment, an 'us versus them' mentality with government officials, and a fundamental misunderstanding of regulatory requirements and expectations".

However, Cruise stated in the post that its response to the incident can be characterized as the "mistakes made by a relatively new company inexperienced in dealing with regulators, the media and the public".

In December, California officials said that the company's failure to disclose the incident fully to the regulators could invite a heavy fine of $1.5 million along with other sanctions. Further, the company's permission to operate autonomous cars was ceased in October.

Following the incident, Cruise's CEO and a Co-Founder resigned. The company fired nine executives and cut a quarter of its workforce.

On February 6, Cruise officials will meet the regulators to discuss further the incident report and to decide an appropriate fine. Earlier, Cruise had offered to pay $75,000 as a settlement.