(Adds no immediate GM comment, more details, background)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators on Wednesday closed a probe into whether General Motors’ self-driving unit Cruise robotaxis were taking sufficient precautions to safeguard pedestrians.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which opened the probe in October 2023, said it was aware of five incidents involving a collision between a Cruise vehicle and a pedestrian, including three that involved injuries. NHTSA said the Cruise vehicle unsuccessfully tried to avoid each collision.

NHTSA had also raised concerns about two incidents involving Cruise vehicles driving near pedestrians on crosswalks.

In ending its investigation, NHTSA cited Cruise's November 2023 recall to address concerns and GM's decision to cease Cruise business operations. The agency noted that no versions of its Cruise self-driving vehicles were operating on public roads.

GM said in December it was ending robotaxi development at its majority-owned, money-losing Cruise business and would no longer fund work on self-driving robotaxis. GM had invested more than $10 billion in Cruise since 2016 and the unit is being folded into the automaker's group working on driver assistance technology.

In November, Cruise admitted to submitting a false report to influence a federal investigation and agreed to pay a $500,000 criminal fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.

The Justice Department said Cruise failed to disclose key details of an October 2023 crash to federal regulators in which one of its robotaxis in San Francisco struck and dragged a pedestrian 20 feet (6.1 meters) after she was struck by another vehicle. GM paid a substantial settlement to the woman who was seriously injured.

GM in July said it was halting development of a planned Cruise robotaxi without a steering wheel or other human controls after it made a series of dramatic cuts following the 2023 crash, including firing many top executives and laying off more than a quarter of its employees.

In 2022, GM asked NHTSA for permission to deploy up to 2,500 self-driving Origin vehicles annually without human controls such as brake pedals or mirrors. GM withdrew the request in October.

(Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Bernadette Baum, Kirsten Donovan)

((David.Shepardson@thomsonreuters.com; 2028988324;))