A bunch of driverless Cruise robotaxis blocked site visitors in San Francisco for hours on Tuesday night after the automobiles stopped working with out rationalization.
Particulars of the incident have been shared on Reddit (and noticed by TechCrunch) and illustrate how driverless autos are nonetheless experiencing teething issues in real-life settings.
Cruise, which is backed by Normal Motors and Honda, has been testing its expertise in San Francisco since February, however solely launched a industrial robotaxi service final week. The automobiles haven’t any human security driver in any respect however function below sure restrictions. They solely supply lifts on “choose streets” between the hours of 10PM and 6AM when the climate situations are favorable, and may drive no quicker than 30mph.
Footage of the driverless roadblock present not less than 5 autos stopped on the street. The redditor who shared the images stated the incident occurred round midnight.
“The very first thing I say to my coworker is that they’re getting collectively to homicide us,” stated redditor seansinha in a remark. “It was a reasonably surreal occasion. People needed to come and manually take the automobiles away. Cruise ought to get fined to shit for blocking the road off for therefore lengthy. They even made it so the road sweeper couldn’t hit a whole block.”
Seansinha stated Cruise workers confirmed as much as the incident “in twenty minutes” however that it took them a very long time to really transfer the automobiles. “It was an enormous debacle,” he stated.
A spokesperson for Cruise acknowledged the incident in an announcement given to TechCrunch, however provided no particulars on why it occurred, and if the issue might happen once more sooner or later.
“We had a difficulty earlier this week that brought about a few of our autos to cluster collectively,” stated the spokesperson. “Whereas it was resolved and no passengers have been impacted, we apologize to anybody who was inconvenienced.”
It’s not the primary mishap involving Cruise’s driverless tech. Earlier this yr, a police officer tried to tug over a Cruise robotaxi, apparently as a result of the automobile’s headlights have been turned off at evening. Cruise later stated the incident was on account of “human error.” “Our AV yielded to the police automobile, then pulled over to the closest protected location for the site visitors cease, as meant,” stated the corporate. “An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no quotation was issued.”
