Cruise driverless cars to slowly resume operations in Houston after 'leadership team was replaced'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Remember those self-driving Cruise vehicles that were operating around Houston last year?

Although the General Motors-owned company has been off the road for months, it just announced that it is slowly resuming operations in Houston.

It's been a tumultuous few months for the company following an incident last October when a pedestrian was hit and dragged by one of the vehicles in San Francisco.

That woman was hit by another car before being placed in the path of the Cruise vehicle.

She survived, but the accident led to a string of events that culminated in the company suspending its operations nationwide.

First, the State of California announced Cruise could no longer operate.

Then, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an ongoing investigation.

Finally, Cruise announced in November that they were taking all 950 of their cars off the road.

Pete Bigelow, who is a technology writer with Automotive News, discussed the series of events with ABC13.

"That's been the big story for Cruise over the past few months," Bigelow said. "Subsequently, their whole leadership team was replaced."

The cars in Houston will have people behind the wheel for now, but a spokesperson from Cruise said they hope to be driverless again in a couple of weeks.

What's changed since the incident in San Francisco?

Cruise declined an interview with ABC13 but said in a statement that they hired an outside company to review the accident, updated their fleet's software, and are consulting with third-party companies to improve overall performance.

Bigelow said they likely addressed this particular accident, but the changes' long-term implications are unknown.

"I think clearly they've addressed that particular aspect of their technology," he said. "Beyond that, it's yet-to-be-determined what they've done from a technology perspective to enhance their overall operation."

Bigelow said he'd feel comfortable getting into a Cruise vehicle but added he'd have to think about it when putting someone like his child in one.

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