San Francisco transportation officers need Waymo and Cruise to sluggish the growth of their robotaxi providers within the metropolis attributable to security considerations, as reported earlier by NBC Information. In two letters written to the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC), the officers on San Francisco County’s Transportation Authority say the growth of both service “is unreasonable,” citing current incidents involving stopped driverless automobiles blocking site visitors and obstructing emergency responders.
Technology
San Francisco wants to slow robotaxi rollout over blocked traffic and false 911 calls
The GM-backed Cruise and Alphabet-owned Waymo are at present the one firms permitted to supply driverless rides to passengers in San Francisco. In June, Cruise received a allow to cost for rides in its autonomous automobiles (AV) between 10PM and 6AM, whereas Waymo obtained a allow to supply absolutely driverless rides just a few months later. In contrast to Cruise, Waymo nonetheless can’t cost for driverless rides, because it’s nonetheless awaiting an extra allow from the CPUC.
Now that each firms have had their absolutely driverless automobiles on San Francisco streets for a number of months, we’re beginning to see the automobiles’ response — or lack thereof — to complicated site visitors conditions.
In July, a gaggle of driverless Cruise automobiles blocked site visitors for hours after the automobiles inexplicably stopped working, and the same incident occurred in September. In the meantime, a driverless Waymo automobile created a site visitors jam in San Francisco after it stopped in the course of an intersection earlier this month. The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration opened an investigation into Cruise final December over considerations concerning the automobiles blocking site visitors and inflicting rear-end collisions with exhausting braking.
“A sequence of restricted deployments with incremental expansions — moderately than limitless authorizations — provide one of the best path towards public confidence in driving automation and business success in San Francisco and past,” the letter reads.
Firefighters say they may solely cease a Cruise automobile from working over the hose after “they shattered a entrance window” of the automotive
Nonetheless, metropolis officers additionally specific concern over the best way driverless automobiles cope with emergency automobiles. Final April, officers say an autonomous Cruise automobile stopped in a journey lane and “created an obstruction for a San Francisco Hearth Division automobile on its solution to a 3 alarm hearth.”
Months later, a Cruise AV “ran over a hearth home that was in use at an energetic hearth scene,” and one other Cruise automobile virtually did the identical at an energetic firefighting scene earlier this month. Firefighters say they may solely cease the automobile from working over the hose after “they shattered a entrance window” of the automotive. Different incidents contain Cruise calling 911 about “unresponsive” passengers on three separate events, just for emergency providers to reach and discover that the rider simply fell asleep.
“Cruise’s security file is publicly reported and consists of having pushed tens of millions of miles in a particularly complicated city atmosphere with zero life-threatening accidents or fatalities,” Cruise spokesperson Aaron Mclear tells The Verge.
Whereas the San Francisco Transportation Authority helps the growth of driverless expertise, it desires extra transparency and extra safeguards put in place. Officers say firms ought to be required to gather extra knowledge concerning the efficiency of the automobiles, together with how typically and the way lengthy their driverless automobiles block site visitors. It additionally desires to limit AV firms from working on San Francisco’s “downtown core streets” throughout peak journey hours till they show that they will constantly function “with out important interruption of road operations and transit providers.”
Even nonetheless, Cruise is seeking to function its paid robotaxi service in San Francisco 24 / 7. Whereas the corporate gained approval from the California Division of Motor Automobiles in December, it’s nonetheless ready for the inexperienced mild from CPUC. Each firms already provide rides in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cruise introduced its robotaxi service to Austin, Texas, too.
“These letters are a typical a part of the regulatory course of, and now we have lengthy appreciated a wholesome dialogue with metropolis officers and authorities companies in California,” Waymo spokesperson Katherine Barna says in an announcement to The Verge. “Waymo may have the chance to answer in our submission to the CPUC subsequent week.”