Proactive Investors - General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)-owned Cruise has raised its offer to settle a regulatory probe into delays in the firm’s disclosure of a crash involving one of its vehicles in California last year.
A Cruise representative on Tuesday offered $112,500 to settle the case, which came after one of its self-driving taxis collided with and subsequently dragged a pedestrian in California last October.
California’s Public Utilities Commission in December accused Cruise of misleading regulators and the public over the incident.
Tuesday’s proposed settlement was an increase on Cruise's original offer of $75,000.
“It was regrettable. It was a mistake,” Cruise chief administrative officer Craig Glidden said at yesterday’s hearing with the commission.
“Cruise is attempting to make right with the mistake. We want to get the matter settled because we want to move forward.”
Several members of Cruise’s leadership have resigned or been laid off since the October crash, including former chief executive Kyle Vogt, with the company also losing a licence to operate driverless cars in California.
Questions were asked over Cruise’s initial response to the incident, in which a pedestrian was dragged 20 feet after being thrown into the path of one of its cars.
“I appreciate you are making some corrective actions but at the same time, I'm just sort of bothered when I look at the totality of facts,” Judge Robert Mason said at the hearing.
The commission had acknowledged in December that Cruise informed it of the incident at the time, but argued the firm “omitted” information about the car continuing to drive after hitting the pedestrian.