This is the moment over a dozen malfunctioning self-driving cars caused gridlock on a major city street – leaving Texas drivers furious.
Shocking footage from Austin showed around 20 Cruise-operated Chevrolet Bolts causing mayhem on Saturday night.
‘Are you telling me they have no way to get out of this?’ a driver was heard shouting in the video.
‘Not a single one is man,’ another was heard saying, shocked by the number of self-driving cars on the street.
It’s not known what caused the traffic jam and why the cars became stuck, but a spokesman of Cruise hinted pedestrian traffic as the problem.
A dozen malfunctioning self-driving cars caused gridlock on a major city street – leaving Texas drivers furious
Cars were stuck on the road, facing each other as the Cruise workers trying to operate them through remote control
Around 20 Cruise-operated Chevrolet Bolts blocked the street, as the company hinted pedestrian traffic as the problem
‘Foot and vehicle traffic on the street was heavy. Our cars are designed first and foremost to prioritize safety—and that includes using caution around pedestrians,’ the spokesperson said in a statement.
‘We were able to address it and all vehicles departed the area autonomously. We apologize for any inconvenience,’ the spokesman added.
A similar incident occurred earlier this week when a Cruise vehicle abruptly stopped in an intersection.
But Michael Staples, the general manager of Cruise, believes self-driving cars are in real need.
‘We don’t drink and drive, we don’t get tired, and we follow the rules,’ Staples told KXAN last month that autonomous cars are safer than human.
Autonomous cars were frequently seen stuck in crosswalks, at traffic lights and intersections in Austin, Texas, where about 125 self-driving vehicles operated
Autonomous cars in Austin have tested the patience of drivers for long
Michael Staples (pictured), the general manage of Cruise, insisted that self-driving cars are in real need in his interview with KXAN
About 125 autonomous cars are operating in Austin, according to a memo from the Transportation and Public Works Department.
They were seen stuck in crosswalks, at traffic lights and intersections, leaving Austin drivers frustrated.
The country’s tech hub is not the only place suffering from unmanned traffic jams. Cruise has had a bad reputation in San Francisco, where those all kinds of incidents related to autonomous cars primarily took place.
Last month, ten of Cruise’s cars brought a street in the North Beach district to a stand-still just a day after securing the green light to flood the streets of the crime-ridden city with even more of its Chevy Bolts.
The firm thinks a nearby music festival may have overloaded telecommunications networks.
A woman who filmed the drama could be heard claiming 10 of the hatchbacks had stopped.
Two days after the incident, a report showed San Francisco citizens are having sex in the city’s driverless taxis.
The San Francisco Standard interviewed four individuals who admitted to engaging in the act – within the atypical confines of the city’s expanding fleet of autonomous cabs.
Accounts offered by the principles included trysts so steamy they fogged up the cars’ purposely fish bowl-shaped windows, and behavior so brazen that they were witnessed by actual, breathing motorists.
A Cruise vehicle in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday Feb. 2, 2022
Participants who spoke with the paper did so anonymously, on the condition exact dates of the riders’ debauchery be redacted.
The report comes hours after California elected to do away with restrictions that required the vehicles to operate only at night, and shows how such behavior had already been commonplace beforehand.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed took to Twitter to share her thoughts on autonomous vehicles within the city prior to the setback.
‘Autonomous vehicles are a key part of the future of transportation, not just in San Francisco but in the world,’ she wrote in the tweet.
Adding: ‘As a city that leads on innovation, we are committed to integrating AVs and improving how they can work safely and effectively in our City.’
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