General Motors’ (GM’s) driverless ride-hailing company Cruise has been hit with its latest fine, after the company failed to disclose certain details about an accident involving a pedestrian last October.
Cruise has agreed to pay a $500,000 criminal fine over the record it submitted following an accident with a pedestrian last October, as detailed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in deferred prosecution that was revealed on November 14 (via Automotive News). The decision was made within the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California, and it comes as the most recent legal penalty the company has had to pay after regulators said it “omitted” and “misrepresented” details about the accident.
According to NHTSA special agent Cory Legars, who is overseeing the Cruise case, the fine is intended to help hold Cruise and its staff accountable, following a “lack of candor” in response to the 2023 crash in which a robotaxi dragged and pinned a pedestrian.
The DOJ echoed the company’s withholding of certain details following the accident, which caused “multiple traumatic injuries” for the pedestrian, according to emergency responders. Cruise has also been criticized over its response to the accident by other agencies, including the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Along with the fine, Cruise must also implement a safety compliance program, submit yearly reports to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and cooperate with all government agency investigations.
In a written statement, Cruise Chief Administrative Officer Craig Glidden said that company maintained a “firm commitment to transparency with our regulators.”
Cruise leadership pledges more transparency, greater culture of safety in new letter
Cruise’s October 2023 accident and other crash response fines
In the accident, which took place on October 2, 2023, a Cruise robotaxi struck a pedestrian moments after she had been hit by a car with a human driver. The pedestrian ended up in the path of the Cruise vehicle, which hit her, dragged her about 20 feet, and engaged an emergency stop sequence that caused the vehicle to stop on top of her with hazard lights on until authorities arrived.
Following the accident, the DMV and other agencies noted that Cruise avoided sharing certain details, including exactly what the robotaxi did after it ran over the individual. Weeks later, Cruise disclosed a more full version of events, but it was only after the DMV specifically requested more details. The agency also suspended Cruise’s permit to operate self-driving vehicles, effective immediately.
“Cruise’s omission hinders the ability of the department to effectively and timely evaluate the safe operation of Cruise vehicles and puts the safety of the public at risk,” said Bernard Soriano, DMV deputy director, after the accident.
In the following weeks and months, Cruise would go on to see a significant staff and executive shake-up, with its two co-founders resigning alongside several other high-level employees. The company also went on to let go of around a quarter of its staff, before hiring several new executives in attempts to regain public and regulator trust and relaunch the service.
Cruise is currently aiming to reboot driverless ride-hailing sometime this year, though it has faced multiple fines from agencies and regulators in addition to the $500,000 agreement with the DOJ.
In June, following months of commission deliberation, Cruise was ordered by the CPUC to pay the maximum penalty of $112,500 for its crash response, after the company originally lobbied for a fine of just $75,000. In September, the NHTSA ordered Cruise to pay a $1.5 million fee, along with submitting a corrective action plan and additional details on how the company plans to fulfill reporting standards in any future incidents.
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Cruise robotaxi pedestrian accident review concludes with strange findings
Elon Musk
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark.
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
9 million customers
In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day.
“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote.
That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.
Starlink’s momentum
Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future.
News
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.
News
Tesla AI team burns the Christmas midnight oil by releasing FSD v14.2.2.1
The update was released just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla is burning the midnight oil this Christmas, with the Tesla AI team quietly rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2.2.1 just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla owner shares insights on FSD v14.2.2.1
Longtime Tesla owner and FSD tester @BLKMDL3 shared some insights following several drives with FSD v14.2.2.1 in rainy Los Angeles conditions with standing water and faded lane lines. He reported zero steering hesitation or stutter, confident lane changes, and maneuvers executed with precision that evoked the performance of Tesla’s driverless Robotaxis in Austin.
Parking performance impressed, with most spots nailed perfectly, including tight, sharp turns, in single attempts without shaky steering. One minor offset happened only due to another vehicle that was parked over the line, which FSD accommodated by a few extra inches. In rain that typically erases road markings, FSD visualized lanes and turn lines better than humans, positioning itself flawlessly when entering new streets as well.
“Took it up a dark, wet, and twisty canyon road up and down the hill tonight and it went very well as to be expected. Stayed centered in the lane, kept speed well and gives a confidence inspiring steering feel where it handles these curvy roads better than the majority of human drivers,” the Tesla owner wrote in a post on X.
Tesla’s FSD v14.2.2 update
Just a day before FSD v14.2.2.1’s release, Tesla rolled out FSD v14.2.2, which was focused on smoother real-world performance, better obstacle awareness, and precise end-of-trip routing. According to the update’s release notes, FSD v14.2.2 upgrades the vision encoder neural network with higher resolution features, enhancing detection of emergency vehicles, road obstacles, and human gestures.
New Arrival Options also allowed users to select preferred drop-off styles, such as Parking Lot, Street, Driveway, Parking Garage, or Curbside, with the navigation pin automatically adjusting to the ideal spot. Other refinements include pulling over for emergency vehicles, real-time vision-based detours for blocked roads, improved gate and debris handling, and Speed Profiles for customized driving styles.
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
