There are many situations! San Francisco wants self-driving taxis to put the brakes on

Since GM’s Cruise and Google’s Waymo were approved to operate self-driving taxis on the streets of San Francisco, there have been multiple instances where the vehicles have blocked city traffic and even impeded the movement of firefighting vehicles, sparking dissatisfaction among local officials. .

The transportation department is complaining

According to an earlier report by NBC, San Francisco transportation officials want Waymo and Cruise to slow down their operations due to safety concerns. Application and promotion of self-driving taxis in urban transportation.

San Francisco Transportation Authority officials said in two letters to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that the promotion was unreasonable. In their letter, they cited recent incidents in which self-driving vehicles blocked traffic and impeded the movement of firefighting vehicles.

Cruise and Waymo are currently the only two companies approved to provide self-driving services to passengers in San Francisco.

Cruise received a license to operate self-driving taxis between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. last June, while Waymo received a license to provide self-driving services a few months later.

Self-driving taxis from both companies have been operating on the streets of San Francisco for several months now, but the vehicles have had many adverse reactions (or lack thereof) to complex traffic conditions.

In July last year, multiple Cruise self-driving cars blocked road traffic for several hours after inexplicably stopping, and a similar incident occurred in September last year. Earlier this year in January, a Waymo self-driving car stopped at an intersection in San Francisco, causing a traffic jam.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into the vehicles operated by Cruise in December over concerns that the vehicles were blocking traffic and causing rear-end collisions during emergency braking.

San Francisco Transportation Authority officials wrote in the letter: "We need limited deployment of autonomous vehicles, rather than unlimited authorization, which will provide public confidence in the promotion of autonomous driving and industry success in San Francisco and beyond. "Confidence provides the best approach."

The fire department also criticized

Other San Francisco officials also expressed concerns that self-driving cars did not evade emergency vehicles.

Last April, a self-driving car parked in a lane and blocked a San Francisco Fire Department fire truck heading to the scene of a fire. A few months later, a Cruise AV self-driving car ran over a fire hose in use at a fire scene. Earlier in January this year, another Cruise AV self-driving car repeated this scene at a fire scene.

The fire department said they broke the front window of the self-driving car before stopping it from running over a fire hose. Other incidents included Cruise calling 911 on three separate occasions, claiming the passenger was "unresponsive" and possibly unwell, but when medical emergency personnel arrived they discovered the passenger was simply asleep.

In response to these anomalies, Cruise spokesman Aaron Mclea said: "The safety record of Cruise's self-driving cars has been publicly reported, including driving millions of kilometers in extremely complex urban environments, and there has been no such incident. Any situation that results in life-threatening injury or death.”

operating companies strive for

While the San Francisco Transportation Authority supports the application of autonomous driving technology, it hopes to increase transparency and implement additional safeguards .

Transportation officials say operators of self-driving cars should be required to collect more data on vehicle performance, including how often and when self-driving cars block road traffic; they also want to limit self-driving cars during rush hours. Operate on the streets of downtown San Francisco until proven capable of operating without significant obstruction to road traffic.

Still, Cruise hopes to operate its self-driving taxi service around the clock in San Francisco. While the company received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles last December, it is still awaiting approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

In addition, both self-driving car operators already provide ride-hailing services in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cruise will also operate its self-driving cars in Austin, Texas.

Waymo spokesperson Katherine Barna said in a statement to industry media: "These letters submitted by the San Francisco Transportation Authority are an integral part of the regulatory process we have been looking to engage with California municipal officials and government agencies. Communication and dialogue. We will respond in a submission to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) next week."

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