Cruise LLC, a San Francisco-based autonomous vehicle company, has agreed to resolve a criminal charge in federal court. The charge involves providing false information to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) with the intent to influence an investigation into a crash involving one of its vehicles. Cruise will address this through a deferred prosecution agreement and pay a $500,000 fine.

"Federal laws and regulations are in place to protect public safety on our roads. Companies with self-driving cars that seek to share our roads and crosswalks must be fully truthful in their reports to their regulators," stated Martha Boersch, Chief of the Office of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division.

Cory LeGars, Special Agent-in-Charge at the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG), Western Region, commented, "Today’s deferred prosecution agreement holds Cruise, LLC and its employees accountable for their lack of candor in a federal regulatory compliance action."

The criminal information alleges that Cruise falsified records during an investigation under NHTSA's jurisdiction within the U.S. Department of Transportation. The incident occurred on October 2, 2023, when a Cruise vehicle operating without a driver ran over a pedestrian who had been thrown into its path by another vehicle. The autonomous vehicle did not detect the pedestrian underneath it and attempted to pull over, dragging her more than 20 feet.

Cruise filed an accident report with NHTSA that omitted details about this secondary movement and dragging. In subsequent communications with NHTSA, technical difficulties prevented showing video evidence depicting the dragging.

Under the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement, Cruise is required to pay $500,000 as a criminal fine and implement measures such as cooperating with government investigations and establishing a Safety Compliance Program. If Cruise fails to meet these obligations during the three-year term of the agreement, prosecution may proceed.

The resolution was influenced by factors including Cruise's cooperation after being notified about the government's investigation and its internal remedial actions.

The announcement was made by Martha Boersch from the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division; Cory LeGars from DOT-OIG; and FBI Special Agent Robert K. Tripp.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Noah Stern and Lloyd Farnham are handling prosecution efforts with assistance from Maryam Beros following an investigation by DOT-OIG and FBI.