Incident·WS-0010·Oct 2, 2023·disclosed Oct 24, 2023 (22 days later)·in the wild·Robotaxis & physical AI

Cruise robotaxi drags pedestrian; California pulls permits

GM Cruise / driverless Chevrolet Bolt

55/100
WS-3 Serious
Harm score 55, signal score 54. Autonomy: acted (the AI took a bounded action). How the scores work.
Harm 3/5
damage actually done
Reach 1/5
who was affected
Autonomy 2/4
how much the AI did on its own
Novelty 3/5
how new the behavior was
Permanence 4/5
how hard it is to undo

After a human-driven car knocked a pedestrian into its path in San Francisco, a driverless Cruise vehicle stopped on top of her and then executed a pull-over maneuver, dragging her about 20 feet. California's DMV suspended Cruise's driverless permits on 24 Oct 2023, alleging it had not initially disclosed the dragging; Cruise later paid federal penalties for incomplete and false reporting.

Damage

1 pedestrian seriously injured; $1.5M NHTSA civil penalty (Sept 2024); $500,000 DOJ criminal fine for false report; Cruise driverless operations halted nationwide

The capability behind it

Sources

Missionlocal, second source. Cruise disputed the DMV's account, saying officials saw full video on Oct 3. Date of the DOJ agreement not verified here.

Factor ratings and the score are this index’s judgments by a published formula; facts, dates and figures come from the linked sources. Where a lawsuit is pending, the summary reports allegations, not findings.