Nuked Hello everyone! Nuked here. I’m here to talk about the recent news about San Francisco wanting to slow the rollout of robotaxis due to safety concerns.
It was reported earlier by NBC News that San Francisco transportation officials want Waymo and Cruise, who are currently the only companies permitted to offer driverless rides to passengers in San Francisco, to slow the expansion of their services. The officials from San Francisco County’s Transportation Authority wrote two letters to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) saying that the expansion of either service “is unreasonable” citing recent incidents involving stopped driverless vehicles blocking traffic and obstructing emergency responders.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruise last December over concerns about the vehicles blocking traffic and causing rear-end collisions with hard braking. The letters suggest that a series of limited deployments with incremental expansions would be a better path for public confidence in driving automation and industry success in San Francisco and beyond.
The city officials also expressed concern over the way driverless vehicles deal with emergency vehicles. Firefighters reported that they had to shatter a front window of a Cruise vehicle after it ran over a fire hose that was in use at an active fire scene. Additionally, Cruise has called 911 on three occasions due to unresponsive passengers only for emergency services to arrive and find that the rider had just fallen asleep.
Cruise spokesperson Aaron Mclear said that they have driven millions of miles in an extremely complex urban environment with zero life-threatening injuries or fatalities. However, the San Francisco Transportation Authority still wants more transparency and additional safeguards put in place, such as collecting more data about the performance of the vehicles and restricting AV companies from operating on San Francisco’s “downtown core streets” during peak travel hours.
Cruise is still waiting for approval from CPUC to operate its paid robotaxi service 24/7 in San Francisco, while Waymo is awaiting an additional permit from CPUC to charge for driverless rides. Both companies already offer rides in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cruise brought its robotaxi service to Austin, Texas.
Waymo spokesperson Katherine Barna said that they appreciate a healthy dialogue with city officials and government agencies in California and will have the opportunity to reply in their submission to CPUC next week.
