NHTSA investigating Cruise autonomous taxi crash in San Francisco

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General Motors' Cruise has hit a rough patch.

One of the company's autonomous ride-hailing vehicles operating in San Francisco was involved in an accident the night of June 3, one day after it received a permit to open the service to paying customers in the city without having a human backup driver onboard.

According to a report filed with the California DMV, the Cruise was making a left turn from a left turn lane and struck by an oncoming Prius that was going 40 mph in a 25 mph and making a right turn.

"The Cruise AV came to a stop before fully completing its turn onto Spruce Street due to the oncoming Toyota Prius, and the Toyota Prius entered the intersection traveling straight from the turn lane instead of turning," the report said.

The Cruise service is available overnights in San Francisco. (Cruise)

The Prius struck the rear quarter of the Cruise, which is based on the electric Chevrolet Bolt EV subcompact, and passengers in both vehicles suffered minor injuries.

GM CEO MARY BARRA TOOK A ‘SURREAL’ RIDE IN AN AUTONOMOUS CRUISE

GM CEO Mary Barra took a ride in a Cruise earlier this year. (Cruise)

Cruise has been in contact with both the California agency and NHTSA, the latter of which has assigned a crash investigation team to look into the incident.

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The Cruise vehicles are based on the Chevrolet Bolt EV. (Cruise)

The Cruise service had not been opened to the public at the time of the accident and was only available to employees and their friends and family. It became widely available on June 23, but is restricted to a fleet of 30 vehicles that can only operate between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. when traffic is the lightest.

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The service encountered a separate issue on June 28, when a technical issue caused eight of the cars to cluster at an intersection and block traffic for several hours before human operators were able to arrive and resolve the problem.

Cruise is primarily owned by General Motors, with Honda holding a smaller stake.

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