San Francisco transportation officials want Waymo and Cruise to scale back the expansion of their robotaxi services in the city due to safety concerns. as previously reported by NBC News. In two letters Writing to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), San Francisco County Transportation Authority officials say the expansion of either service is “unreasonable,” citing recent incidents involving stopped driverless vehicles that they block traffic and obstruct emergency services.
The GM-backed cruise ship and Alphabet-owned Waymo are currently the only companies authorized to offer self-drive rides to passengers in San Francisco. In June, Cruise got a permit to charge for rides in its autonomous vehicles (AVs) between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., while Waymo got a permit to offer fully driverless rides a few months later. Unlike Cruise, Waymo still can’t charge for self-drive rides, as it is still waiting for additional permission from the CPUC.
Now that both companies have had their fully autonomous vehicles on the streets of San Francisco for several months, we are beginning to see the vehicles’ response, or lack thereof, to complex traffic situations.
In July, a group of driverless Cruise vehicles blocked traffic for hours after the cars inexplicably stopped working, and a similar incident occurred in september. Meanwhile, a driverless Waymo vehicle created a traffic jam in San Francisco after it stopped in the middle of an intersection earlier this month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruise last December over concerns about vehicles blocking traffic and causing rear-end collisions with sudden stops.
“A series of limited deployments with incremental expansions, rather than unlimited authorizations, offers the best path to public trust to drive automation and industry success in San Francisco and beyond,” the letter says.
Firefighters say they were only able to stop a Cruise vehicle from running over the hose after they “broke out a front window” on the car.
However, city officials are also raising concerns about how driverless vehicles deal with emergency vehicles. Last April, authorities say a Cruise autonomous vehicle stopped in a traffic lane and “created an obstruction for a San Francisco Fire Department vehicle on its way to a 3-alarm fire.”
Months later, a Cruise AV “ran over a fire station that was in use at an active fire scene,” and another Cruise vehicle nearly did the same thing at an active firefighting scene earlier this month. Firefighters say they were only able to stop the vehicle from running over the hose after they “broke out a front window” on the car. Other incidents involve Cruise calling 911 about “unresponsive” passengers on three separate occasions, only for emergency services to arrive to discover that the passenger simply fell asleep.
“Cruise’s safety record is publicly reported and includes having driven millions of miles in an extremely complex urban environment without life-threatening injuries or deaths,” Cruise spokesman Aaron Mclear said. the edge.
While the San Francisco Transportation Authority supports the expansion of driverless technology, it wants more transparency and additional safety measures. Officials say companies should be required to collect more data on vehicle performance, including how often and how long their driverless vehicles block traffic. It also wants to restrict AV companies from operating on San Francisco’s “downtown core streets” during peak commute hours until they can demonstrate they can operate consistently “without significant disruption to street operations and transit services.” “.
Still, Cruise is looking to operate its paid robotaxi service in San Francisco 24/7. Although the company obtained approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles in December, is still waiting for the green light from the CPUC. Both companies already offer rides in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cruise has also brought its robotaxi service to Austin, Texas.
“These letters are a standard part of the regulatory process, and we have long appreciated a healthy dialogue with city officials and government agencies in California,” Waymo spokeswoman Katherine Barna says in a statement to the edge. “Waymo will have the opportunity to respond in our submission to the CPUC next week.”
