(Reuters) – The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) said on Wednesday it is closely monitoring the testing and use of self-driving vehicles in the state, a day after California barred General Motors’ Cruise from using its vehicles in autonomous mode.
“When needed to safeguard public safety, ADOT will make any needed adjustments to a company’s ability to test and operate self-driving vehicles in Arizona,” the department said.
California on Tuesday ordered GM’s Cruise unit to remove its driverless cars from state roads, calling the vehicles a risk to the public and saying the company had “misrepresented” the safety of the technology.
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspended Cruise’s autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permit, ending efforts by the company for the time being to test the cars without safety drivers.
Cruise told Reuters, when asked if it would appeal the DMV’s decision, the company did not have more to share apart from its statement on Tuesday in which it said it was pausing operations in San Francisco.
In July, the backup safety driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber test vehicle that struck and killed a woman in Arizona in 2018 pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation.
Departments of transport in Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Florida and the Department of Motor Vehicles in Nevada did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Companies such as Cruise, Alphabet’s Waymo and Uber are testing their self-driving car technology in these states.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
