Cruise has recently caused traffic disruptions in San Francisco, includingCollision with a local fire truckThe California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said it would launch an investigation to clarify responsibility and at the same time required Cruise to limit the number of self-driving vehicles operating during the day to 50, while the number of vehicles operating at night could be relaxed to 150.
Prior to this, Cruise had deployed about 300 autonomous vehicles in downtown San Francisco, andApproved by the California Public Utilities CommissionUnder this, paid ride services in self-driving vehicles can be provided in downtown San Francisco around the clock.
However, recently, it is suspected that a music festival held in the Golden Gate Bridge Park in downtown San Francisco caused local wireless network transmission to be blocked, which in turn caused the network connection that the self-driving vehicle relied on to operate to become abnormal, causing the self-driving vehicle to stop due to network disconnection, and causing local traffic to suddenly become congested. It took at least 20 minutes to successfully resolve the problem.
Well, here are about ten @cruise driverless vehicles stopping traffic dead on Grant Avenue and spilling over to Columbus Avenue and Vallejo Street. I don't remember voting for this. Do you? @SFFDPIO pic.twitter.com/C9ow7lWD0m
— 🅸🆃'🆂 🅵🆁🅸🆂🅲🅾︎ (@Gregster56) August 12, 2023
On the other hand, a Cruise self-driving vehicle recently collided with a fire truck in downtown San Francisco, and even misjudged ground conditions, causing the vehicle to become trapped in undried concrete. As a result, the California Department of Motor Vehicles launched an investigation into the responsibility of such situations and required Cruise to reduce the number of self-driving vehicles in operation during the investigation.
Cruise San Francisco General Manager Greg Dietrerich said earlierExplain through postingThis indicates that the fire truck entered the lane from a corner and, to avoid a stream of cars stopped for a red light, continued through the oncoming lane. This prevented the autonomous vehicle in the oncoming lane from braking and evading the fire truck, resulting in a collision. However, Greg Dietrerich emphasized that the autonomous vehicle immediately recognized the fire truck ahead and braked to reduce its speed.
Ironically, when the California Public Utilities Commission approved Cruise's expansion of its self-driving vehicle paid ride service in San Francisco in a 3-1 vote, the only commissioner who voted against it believed that there was not enough information to assess whether self-driving vehicles would affect the operation of emergency vehicles such as fire trucks and paramedics, and therefore opposed approving the expansion of the deployment of self-driving vehicles in San Francisco.
As for whether the recent series of incidents involving self-driving vehicles will further affect Cruise and Waymo's paid self-driving ride services in downtown San Francisco, it is not yet certain, but it is safe to assume that more San Francisco residents may have a more pronounced aversion to self-driving vehicles.
