On the evening of Thursday (October 26) local time, General Motors' self-driving car division Cruise announced that it would suspend the self-driving operation of all fleets.。

Cruise said: "The most important thing for us now is to take steps to rebuild public trust.。Part of that involves taking a hard look inside and how we work at Cruise, even if it means doing something uncomfortable or difficult.。In that spirit, we have decided to proactively suspend driverless operations across all fleets, while taking the time to review our processes, systems and tools and reflect on how we can operate better in ways that earn the public's trust.。"

Cruise also stressed that this is not related to any new road accidents, and that supervised autonomous vehicle operations will continue.。"We believe this is the right thing to do at a time when we need to be extra vigilant about risks, maintain a constant focus on safety and take steps to rebuild public trust.。

The announcement comes after the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said Tuesday that Cruise's driverless cars pose a risk to the public, saying the company had "misrepresented" the safety of the technology and ordered the robotic taxi operator to remove its driverless cars from state roads.。

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in December that it had opened a formal safety investigation into Cruise after reports of three crashes.。In the three crashes, Cruise's self-driving car was hit from behind by other vehicles after braking quickly, causing two injuries。

In an Oct. 20 letter made public Thursday, NHTSA said it was asking questions about five new reports of crashes involving Cruise vehicles, which were being put on emergency brakes when there were no obstacles ahead.。In the letter, NHTSA said: "Inappropriate emergency braking can cause Cruise vehicles to become unexpected road obstacles and may cause other vehicles to collide with Cruise's driverless vehicles.。"

Cruise said it was cooperating with the ongoing investigation.。Cruise said: "We welcome questions from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding our safety record and operations.。"

Separately, NHTSA launched a separate investigation earlier this month into whether Cruise took adequate precautions with self-driving taxis to protect pedestrians.。

In August of this year, after another accident, the DMV had instructed Cruise to cut its driverless vehicles in half.。

Cruise said the DMV was reviewing an incident that occurred on October 2.。In the accident, one of the company's self-driving vehicles was braking when it hit a pedestrian who had previously been knocked down by a hit-and-run driver.。

The DMV said Cruise initially did not disclose all video footage of the accident and believed Cruise's vehicles may have lacked the ability to respond to accidents involving pedestrians in a safe and appropriate manner.。But Cruise denied the allegation, saying it had shown the full video to the DMV several times.。

Earlier this year, Cruise announced plans to expand its driverless taxi service to 14 U.S. cities, including Phoenix, Houston, Austin, Dallas and Miami.。

Cruise has long been seen as a major growth opportunity by General Motors, but the suspension is a major blow to its self-driving business after a series of accidents involving driverless vehicles.。In contrast, its main rival, Waymo, currently operates its paid driverless taxi service in San Francisco and Phoenix, and this month launched a limited public access service in Los Angeles.。Amazon's Zoox is testing driverless taxis in Las Vegas and plans to commercialize them later。Cruise's suspension of business is bound to make GM fall further behind its rivals in the field of unmanned driving.。