Reports: Cruise paying up to $12M to woman hit by its car in SF

The woman who was run over by a Cruise autonomous vehicle in downtown San Francisco in October has reached a settlement with the General Motors-owned company, according to multiple reports.

Cruise is paying $8 million to $12 million to settle the dispute, Fortune and Bloomberg Law each reported.

Company spokesman Erik Moser declined to confirm the settlement or the amount. Instead, in an emailed statement, he said: “The hearts of all Cruise employees continue to be with the pedestrian, and we hope for her continued recovery.”

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was initially hit by a human-driven vehicle at the intersection of 5th and Market streets Oct. 2. A self-driving Cruise car subsequently ran over the woman and — apparently unaware she was under the car — dragged her 20 feet as it attempted to pull over. The woman was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in critical condition.

She was released in January, the hospital previously confirmed in an emailed statement to The Examiner.

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Cruise officials failed to alert local officials and the California Public Utilities Commission of their vehicle’s role . Within weeks, the DMV suspended the company’s license to operate its vehicles , and the CPUC suspended its ability to offer a commercial robotaxi service.

In the wake of those moves, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt and some nine other executives resigned from the company, and it laid off 900 workers, about a quarter of its staff .

News of the settlement comes as Cruise has begun operating its vehicles again, this time in Phoenix . Last month, the company applied to reinstate its permits in San Francisco and elsewhere in California .

The settlement also comes amid growing scrutiny of autonomous vehicles. Federal regulators on Monday launched investigations into Zoox and Waymo . The inquiry into Amazon-owned Zoox followed a pair of collisions, one of them in San Francisco. The investigation into Waymo followed reports of 17 single-vehicle crashes and five alleged traffic violations.