San Francisco is getting cold feet about self-driving car tests

San Francisco officers have referred to as for a slower, extra thought of enlargement of using autonomous automobiles, which have blocked visitors and hampered emergency companies

By Matthew Sparkes

Officials in San Francisco have requested for a halt to the enlargement of driverless automotive assessments throughout the town after a collection of incidents which have hampered the work of emergency companies.

San Francisco’s place on the coronary heart of Silicon Valley and its wealth of know-how expertise has made it a hotbed for the driverless automotive business. Both Waymo, owned by Google’s guardian firm Alphabet, and Cruise, owned by General Motors, function experimental robotic taxi companies within the metropolis. But they haven’t been with out issues.

New Scientist has beforehand reported how autonomous automobiles (AV) from Cruise, for instance, have randomly stopped and blocked visitors and had a run-in with police. But particulars of different incidents with driverless vehicles have now emerged in letters from metropolis officers.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) has written to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) saying that managers within the City’s Department of Emergency Management started to note plenty of 911 calls final yr from individuals who had seen such vehicles cease with out purpose and block visitors, in addition to “erratic driving”, corresponding to indicating in a single course and shifting within the different.

These sudden stops on busy streets vary from minutes to hours, says one of many letters, giving an instance of a Cruise automotive that reportedly stopped and blocked a San Francisco Fire Department car on its approach to a fireplace. In one other incident, a Cruise automotive entered an space the place firefighters had been working and almost ran over their hoses – it solely stopped when firefighters shattered the entrance window of the car.

Both Cruise and Waymo at present function small fleets between the hours of 10pm and 6am in a confined space of San Francisco, however every has utilized for permission to unfold additional throughout the town and function extra vehicles 24 hours a day.

The SFCTA has now written separate letters to the CPUC about each Cruise’s and Waymo’s enlargement plans and referred to as for “restraint… rather than rapid expansion”.

“Cruise AVs have made unplanned and unexpected stops in travel lanes where they obstruct traffic and transit service, and intruding into active emergency response scenes,” says the letter about Cruise. “If the Commission approves sweeping authorizations for both Waymo and Cruise, the hazards and network impacts… could soon affect a large percentage of all San Francisco travelers.”

Neither Cruise nor Waymo responded to a request for remark by New Scientist. However, in an announcement, Cruise has emphasised that its security report “includes having driven millions of miles in an extremely complex urban environment with zero life-threatening injuries or fatalities”. A Waymo spokesperson has stated that the letters aere “a standard part of the regulatory process” and the corporate would proceed its “healthy dialogue” with metropolis officers.