Company planning to bring driverless taxis to Atlanta pulls supervised rides off the roads

ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has learned that a company looking to bring driverless taxis to Atlanta has suspended supervised rides in those vehicles.

Cruise had told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray that it was planning to roll out its driverless cars in Atlanta in the coming months.

But with it taking its robo-taxis supervised by people off the road, that timeline could change.

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On Monday, Gray reported on how he took some test rides in a Cruise robo-taxi in Austin, Texas.

Just three days after his ride, Cruise announced it was temporarily adding in-car human supervision back to every driverless car it has on the road after a pedestrian was seriously injured in an accident and California pulled Cruise’s permit.

Now Cruise is pulling even those supervised driverless cars off the road. It said the move affects roughly 70 cars.

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The company wrote in a blog post that it is making the move to rebuild trust while it undergoes a full safety review after federal regulators raised concerns about pedestrian accidents.

For now, it will operate its driverless cars only in closed-course training environments.

Channel 2 Action News has reached out to Cruise asking what impact this move will have on plans to operate here in Atlanta.

We’ll let you know as soon as we get a response.

RELATED NEWS:

Is Atlanta ready for driverless cars? They’re coming, so we put them to the test The Cruise robo-taxis are expected to hit Atlanta streets in a matter of months.

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