Cruise stops testing unprotected lefts in response to a crash, yet is somehow still driverless?

Michael DeKort
3 min readSep 1, 2022

Reference document from NHTSA

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2022/RCLRPT-22E072-8020.PDF

Cruise has responded to NHTSA with regard to the crash its system was involved in on June 2, 2022 by taking unprotected lefts out of its testing regimen. Yet, somehow, it does not back away from stating they were “driverless” in the same area. (With zero proof.) Unprotected lefts are not an edge case. They are basic rudimentary scenarios we do all the time. Beyond this of course is what else doesn’t work? What shares the same root cause? And this is after several other problems that have beset Cruise recently including 60 stalled cars that lost a network connection and a whistleblower outing them on Reddit. Both clearly showing they are not driverless. I detail these below.

Cruise is remote vs “driverless”, has a whistleblower, is experiencing crashes and is losing huge sums of money — They are the tip of the iceberg

· https://imispgh.medium.com/cruise-is-remote-vs-driverless-has-a-whistleblower-is-experiencing-crashes-and-is-losing-huge-b07ff8f76b57

The Autonomous Vehicle Industry can be Saved by doing the Opposite of what is being done now to create this technology

· https://medium.com/@imispgh/the-autonomous-vehicle-industry-can-be-saved-by-doing-the-opposite-of-what-is-being-done-now-b4e5c6ae9237

Cruise, like Waymo, now says they are driverless with no proof, nor any comment on Waymo’s CA DMV lawsuit to avoid providing safety data

· https://imispgh.medium.com/cruise-like-waymo-now-says-they-are-driverless-with-no-proof-nor-any-comment-on-waymos-ca-dmv-319b4450edad

The EU proposes a driverless driver’s test that is pretty good — Waymo, Cruise, Gatik etc would fail it

· https://imispgh.medium.com/the-eu-proposes-a-driverless-drivers-test-that-is-pretty-good-waymo-cruise-gatik-etc-would-27e692e8ea7e

Waymo and Cruise should prove their systems are legitimately L4

· https://imispgh.medium.com/waymo-and-cruise-should-prove-their-systems-are-legitimately-l4-79a094be061

Autonomous Vehicle Industry’s Self-Inflicted and Avoidable Collapse — Ongoing Update

· https://imispgh.medium.com/autonomous-vehicle-industrys-self-inflicted-and-avoidable-collapse-ongoing-update-c21d9e65cc35

How the failed Iranian hostage rescue in 1980 can save the Autonomous Vehicle industry

My name is Michael DeKort — I am Navy veteran (ASW C4ISR) and a former system engineer, engineering, and program manager for Lockheed Martin. I worked in aircraft simulation, the software engineering manager for all of NORAD, a software project manager on an Aegis Weapon System baseline, and a C4ISR systems engineer for DoD/DHS and the US State Department (counterterrorism). And a Senior Advisory Technical Project Manager for FTI to the Army AI Task Force at CMU NREC (National Robotics Engineering Center)

Autonomous Industry Participation — Air and Ground

- Founder SAE On-Road Autonomous Driving Simulation Task Force

- Member SAE ORAD Verification and Validation Task Force

- Member UNECE WP.29 SG2 Virtual Testing

- Stakeholder USDOT VOICES (Virtual Open Innovation Collaborative Environment for Safety)

- Member SAE G-35, Modeling, Simulation, Training for Emerging AV Tech

- Member SAE G-34 / EUROCAE WG-114 Artificial Intelligence in Aviation

- Member Teleoperation Consortium

- Member CIVATAglobal — Civic Air Transport Association

- Stakeholder for UL4600 — Creating AV Safety Guidelines

- Member of the IEEE Artificial Intelligence & Autonomous Systems Policy Committee

SAE Autonomous Vehicle Engineering magazine editor calling me “prescient” regarding my position on Tesla and the overall driverless vehicle industry’s untenable development and testing approach — (Page 2) https://assets.techbriefs.com/EML/2021/digital_editions/ave/AVE-202109.pdf

Presented the IEEE Barus Ethics Award for Post 9/11 DoD/DHS Whistleblowing Efforts

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Michael DeKort

Non-Tribal Truth Seeker-IEEE Barus Ethics Award/9–11 Whistleblower-Aerospace/DoD Systems Engineer/Member SAE Autonomy and eVTOL development V&V & Simulation