General Motors (GM) was sued by the state of Texas on Tuesday (13 August) over claims it has spent years misleading customers about how their data was being shared.

The lawsuit alleges that new car owners were put through a “confusing and highly misleading” process which was presented as being for their safety.

However, the process “was no more than a deceptively designed sales flow” in order for GM to take and sell their data, according to the Texas lawsuit.

Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, is seeking a jury trial of at least $10,000 per every car sold in the state since 2015, TechCrunch reported.

In December, GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle (AV) robotaxi unit reportedly dismissed nine of its “key leaders” as it undergoes safety investigations following an accident in October.

According to an internal message obtained by the publication, the cuts included leaders from the company’s legal, government affairs and safety teams.

The obtained message claimed that “new leadership is necessary” for the AV company to operate “with the highest standards when it comes to safety, integrity, and accountability.”

Cruise is just one of the AV companies which are having trouble commercialising AVs. The difficulty of bringing autonomous vehicles to market is further outlined in GlobalData’sThematic Research: Autonomous Vehicles (2023) report.

The leap taken from SAE Level 1 autonomy to Level 2 has proven to be minor compared with the jump in complexity needed for Level 3 ‘eyes-off’ autonomous vehicle operation, according to the report.

Even Level 3 vehicles will appear simple in comparison with the higher levels and capabilities demanded by truly self-driving Level 4 and Level 5 models, according to the report.

The company cuts followed an incident in October when a Cruise robotaxi collided with a pedestrian after they were struck by another vehicle.

The incident led Cruise to pause all of its AVs on roads in the US after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the company’s deployment and testing.

"General Motors sued by Texas for violating privacy of millions of customers" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand.

 

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