After failing to yield to pedestrians on the sidewalk, US regulators launched an investigation into GM's driverless car Cruise

CTOnews.com Cruise, GM's driverless unit, is facing multiple federal investigations into the safety of its vehicles, including two cases of driverless cars failing to yield to pedestrians on sidewalks, Reuters reported earlier today.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a document released this month that Cruise"may not take appropriate precautions around pedestrians," adding that such vehicle behavior could increase the risk of collisions with pedestrians, resulting in injuries and deaths. In an earlier document from the same agency, concerns were also expressed about several crashes involving Cruise vehicles caused by sudden braking.

▲ The picture shows a screenshot of a video related to X platform users. For reference only, safety officials released some of the recorded accident details: in one case, the vehicle suddenly turned to a pedestrian walking his dog before braking; in another case, the vehicle nearly hit four pedestrians on the crosswalk, including two children, but the vehicle finally "drove away."

Cruise responded to the cases on Friday by saying that the vehicles in both accidents were tracking all pedestrians and that improvements had been made to "leave more space for pedestrians" around the vehicles. Cruise was asked by NHTSA to provide more information about the pedestrian accident, including all videos and composite renderings at least 30 seconds before and after the incident, with an Oct. 27 deadline.

CTOnews.com reported yesterday that Cruise announced on Platform X that it had suspended all driverless car operations in the public domain, effectively ending its driverless taxi operations throughout California and in Miami.

Cruise also said it will continue to conduct "supervised autonomous vehicle operations," meaning human operators will continue to sit behind the wheel of driverless taxis.