Back in October, a robotaxi operated by the Cruise autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors hit a woman in San Francisco as she crossed the street.
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Now, Fortune reports that the company reached a settlement with that woman for somewhere between $8 million and $12 million.
“The hearts of all Cruise employees continue to be with the pedestrian, and we hope for her continued recovery,” a Cruise spokesperson said in a statement shared with Quartz. The full terms of the settlement have not been made public.
During the incident last year, the Cruise vehicle dragged the woman more than 20 feet and pinned her under itself while she waited for emergency services to come to her rescue. After the incident, Cruise’s CEO resigned and the company stopped all testing throughout the United States.
When the California Public Utilities Commission investigated the matter, a lawyer hired by General Motors found that the company failed to turn over the entire video of the incident because of a bad internet connection. A judge expressed disappointment with the company, saying that it had “misled the Commission regarding the extent and severity of the October 2, 2023 incident, as well as the ability of Cruise’s AV’s to operate safely after experiencing a collision.”
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In December, Cruise laid off 900 employees to “focus on delivering the improvements to our tech and vehicle performance that will build trust in our AVs (autonomous vehicles),” as president and chief technology officer Mo ElShenawy put it at the time. In January, General Motors CEO Mary Barra said she would be cutting $1 billion from the division’s budget as part of an effort to cut down electric vehicle costs.
Last month, Cruise resumed testing its vehicles — but with human drivers behind the wheel.
-William Gavin contributed to this article.
GM’s Cruise settles lawsuit with pedestrian hit by robotaxi
