NHTSA opens investigation into GM’s autonomous Cruise EVs causing accidents
A report filed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) this week has opened another investigation into GM’s robotaxi company Cruise. According to the filing, the NHTSA has received multiple reports of Cruise’s autonomous EVs blocking roadways and stopping abruptly, causing accidents with other drivers on roads.
Cruise is a startup founded in 2013 in San Francisco before being was purchased by GM in 2016. The startup immediately began converting the automaker’s Chevy Bolt EV to be fully-autonomous backed by $14 million in GM funding.
The Bolt remains the self-driving EV of choice for Cruise until its Origin platform EV eventually takes over. While the company continues to expand its autonomous robotaxi service in California, it hasn’t come without its fair share of bugs (and occasional accidents).
Earlier this year, Cruise recalled 80 of its autonomous robotaxis, citing a risk of accidents, particularly during turns. Following an investigation that began in June after two people were injured, the NHTSA stated that a software issue caused the self-driving Cruise vehicles to “incorrectly predict” oncoming vehicle’s paths, adding risk for collisions.
Cruise briefly decommissioned each of those EVs in order to implement a software update that resolved the prediction issue, then reintroduced unprotected left turns shorty thereafter. Now, however, the traffic safety administration is investigating two additional reports of accidents caused by Cruise’s autonomous fleet.
NHTSA again investigating autonomous Cruise EV accidents
The NHTSA filed investigation report PE22014 on December 12, pertaining to GM’s Cruise and its fleet of autonomous EVs causing risk of collisions in two types of “distinct instances.” These instances pertain to the EVs hard braking and/or becoming immobilized, both of which can block roadways and add risk of accident.
The NHTSA referred to three separate reports of the Automated Driving System (ADS) equipped in a given Cruise vehicle braking hard in response to another vehicle quickly approaching it from behind. In each instance, those drivers ended up rear-ending the Cruise vehicle. In the cases of these three reported accidents, the autonomous vehicles had a human supervisor present inside.
In terms of the autonomous Cruise vehicles blocking traffic, the NHTSA cites “multiple reports,” stating that the specific number is currently unknown. All known occurrences happened without the presence of a human supervisor however. Per the report:
When this occurs, the vehicle may strand vehicle passengers in unsafe locations, such as lanes of travel or intersections, and become an unexpected obstacle to other road users. These immobilizations may increase the risk to exiting passengers. Further, immobilization may cause other road users to make abrupt or unsafe maneuvers to avoid colliding with the immobilized Cruise vehicle, by, for example, diverting into oncoming lanes of traffic or into bike lanes. The vehicle immobilizations may also present a secondary safety risk, by obstructing the paths of emergency response vehicles and thereby delaying their emergency response times.
The NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has opened a preliminary evaluation on the accidents above in order to determine the scope and severity of the potential safety issues. The administration states it has already learned much of the autonomous accidents through multiple sources, including Cruise directly, media reports, and submissions from local authorities.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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