SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) – California on Tuesday ordered General Motors’ (GM.N) Cruise unit to remove its driverless cars from state roads, calling the vehicles a risk to the public and saying the company had “misrepresented” the safety of the technology.

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said it suspended Cruise’s autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permit, ending efforts by the company for the time being to test the cars without safety drivers.

“Based upon the performance of the vehicles, the department determines the manufacturer’s vehicles are not safe for the public’s operation,” the DMV said in a statement, citing “an unreasonable risk to public safety.”

The DMV added that Cruise had “misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.” The state agency said Cruise is allowed to challenge the suspension within five days. The company did not say if it planned to do that.

The suspension, following a series of accidents involving Cruise vehicles, is a major setback to the self-driving business that GM has called a major growth opportunity and to the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry. But unionized transit workers and other critics of robotaxis hailed the suspension, which was effective immediately.

“This could be a big blow to Cruise,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. “This plays into the narrative about the technology and the companies failing. The whole industry will suffer as a result.”

Cruise said in a statement: “We will be pausing operations of our driverless AVs in San Francisco. Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives.”

Cruise said the DMV was reviewing an Oct. 2 incident, where one of its self-driving vehicles was brakin