GM's AV Unit Cruise Resumes Operations With Human-Driven Fleet in Arizona

Cruise, GM's autonomous vehicle (AV) unit, is resuming manual driving to create maps and gather road information in select cities, starting in Phoenix, Arizona. This work is done using human-driven vehicles without autonomous systems engaged.

The move is a critical step for validating its self-driving systems as it works towards returning to its driverless mission.

In October 2023, Cruise paused operations of its fleet to focus on rebuilding trust with regulators and to redesign its approach to safety.

Its license to deploy and test fully-driverless vehicles in the state of California was suspended by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The decision was based on public safety concerns.

The project in Phoenix will help inform where Cruise ultimately will resume driverless operations.

On its website, Cruise states: 'During our operational pause over the last few months, Cruise maintained ongoing and extensive testing in complex, dynamic simulated environments and on closed courses, enabling continuous retraining and improvement. Now, we are building on that work to create high-quality semantic maps and gather road information to ensure future operations meet elevated safety and performance targets'.

It adds: 'Safety is the defining principle for everything we do and will guide our progress through this process. As we begin this work, we have requirements in place that not only cover the safety criteria, functions and roadworthiness of the vehicle, but also include robust incident response protocols and extensive training and ongoing performance monitoring for the operators behind the wheel'.

Cruise’s AV stack is based on AI technology that learns from information gathered through its driving experience and retrains and evolves our models continuously.