San Francisco, CA
2 robotaxi crashes in San Francisco put focus on autonomous vehicle safety
SAN FRANCISCO — Calls to slow the expansion of robotaxi service grew louder following two overnight crashes in San Francisco. Both involved Cruise driverless cars and one of them collided with a fire engine responding to an emergency.
San Francisco police said that crash happened at around 10:20 pm Thursday night at the intersection of Polk and Turk Streets in the Tenderloin District. Officers said a San Francisco fire truck responding to an emergency collided with the Cruise autonomous cab. There were no injuries to the firefighters but paramedics transported a passenger in the cab to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators said that, even though the driverless taxi had the green light, it was supposed to yield to an emergency vehicle.
“The fire engine was operating in Code 3 emergency mode, with lights and sirens. It’s really a reminder to everyone you are required to yield whether it’s a vehicle driven by a human operator or an autonomous vehicle,” said SFPD spokesperson Sgt. Kathryn Winters.
It was unclear why the self-driving car did not yield. Cruise said in a statement it’s investigating to better understand the problem.
About two hours later, another Cruise driverless car was struck by Dodge Charger in the Mission District.
Surveillance video obtained by KPIX shows the crash happened at 12:19 a.m. Friday at the intersection of Mission and 26th streets.
San Francisco police said the robotaxi entered the intersection on a green light when the Charger plowed into it.
A Cruise spokesperson said the driverless car detected the Charger before the impact and braked in the intersection.
The crash was so loud Harry Porras heard it from his apartment a block away.
“The Dodge was completely totaled. I mean it was just wiped. There was fluid leaking everywhere. Airbags were all deployed. It seems scary. Fortunately, the (driver) was OK and no injuries,” Porras said.
San Franisco police do not believe drugs or alcohol played a role.
“The human-operated vehicle had likely run a red light, resulting in the collision. So, in this case, the autonomous vehicle did not appear to be at fault for the collision,” Sgt. Winters said.
The collisions came a day after San Francisco leaders asked state regulators to halt the expansion of robotaxi service in the city.
They said self-driving cars still have a lot of technical bugs and are not ready for primetime.
“I’m against it. I feel like it’s just not ready,” Porras said. “I don’t agree with them. I don’t think they’re safe and, even if they do promise all of these things, at the end of the day, they’re just robots and they’re eventually going to mess up, too.”
San Francisco, CA
Hayes Valley Quadruple Murder Suspect Convicted on All Counts
Lee Farley, 36, was convicted Friday of shooting and killing four men in the Hayes Valley neighborhood in 2015.
In a statement, prosecutors said that Farley was found guilty of using a rental car from Walnut Creek to perform a drive-by shooting on an idle Honda Civic, firing 18 shots into the vehicle before fleeing.
All four victims died on the scene.
Farley, who initially plead not guilty, was serving time for unrelated charges in 2016 when authorities connected him to the shootings, according to reporting from SFGATE.
“Our strong legal team fought hard, understanding that while nothing we do can bring back their loved ones, that hopefully this verdict brings them some comfort,” said District Attroney Brooke Jenkins in the statement.
Farley is set to be sentenced on Dec. 16.
Photo via X
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Giants Predicted to Spend This Offseason in Free Agency
The San Francisco Giants are heading into free agency and the offseason as a very interesting team to watch.
It was another disappointing season for the Giants in 2024, as they finished under .500 once again and missed the playoffs for the third straight year.
The struggles in San Francisco resulted in a change in the front office, as Buster Posey took over as the President of Baseball Operations.
With the decision to add Posey to the front office, the hope is that he will be able to lure in some of the top caliber free agents that they have been missing out on in recent years.
The Giants haven’t been shy about spending money, but that money hasn’t always went to the right places.
Recently, Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report ranked teams in different tiers based on what they will spend this offseason. For San Francisco, he placed them in the tier that will be spending this winter.
“Perhaps the most interesting team on this list is the Giants, with former NL MVP Buster Posey now serving as their president of baseball operations. He’s talked about wanting to figure the shortstop position out, which is why we’ve projected the Giants as the landing spot for Adames. But San Francisco has had a hard time getting star players to sign on the dotted line in recent years, probably due in large part to Oracle Park being seen as a bad place to hit at 81 times a season.”
While the Giants have the desire to sign a superstar and the next face of the franchise, there have been some indications that they might not break the bank this offseason. However, at the same time, they have been linked to some of the top free agents this winter.
Currently, the biggest need for San Francisco is in their lineup. While Juan Soto would be a great addition, him going to the Bay Area seems unlikely. However, a player like Willy Adames or Alex Bregman might be a more realistic target. Neither one of those players would be cheap, but both would instantly upgrade the lineup.
In addition to trying to upgrade the lineup, the Giants also saw Blake Snell decline his player option to become a free agent. Considering how good Snell was in the second half of the season, it will be interesting to see what the plan is to either bring him back or replace him.
While San Francisco will certainly be spending this offseason, the real question will be how much the organization is willing to invest.
San Francisco, CA
Atmospheric river storm causes minor flooding in San Francisco
Some San Francisco roadways and neighborhoods experienced minor flooding Friday as the atmospheric river dumped heavy rain on the city.
Matthew Coric said he was inside his restaurant when all the sudden he noticed water rising outside.
“Water was coming over the curb already and Rainbow Grocery closed for the day because they flooded or started to flood, and the next two restaurants had water in their restaurant already,” said Coric.
Two years ago during another big storm, the entire block flooded with several feet of water.
Coric told KPIX he was determined to not let that happen again, so he and some of his employees grabbed brooms and anything else they could get their hands on and ran towards the flooding.
“These two drains right here on either side of the street, we literally couldn’t see them. This was up above the curb. We were just blindly scraping trying to get it unclogged until we could see the little tornado start,” said Coric.
He said they were able to unclog the drain just in time to stop the water from flooding his restaurant, and that it took about 30 minutes for the water to fully recede.
While he is happy they were able to avoid another crisis, he said he wishes the city would have been monitoring the area so that he and his employees didn’t have to fix it on their own.
“It flooded two years ago, and then last year the city was like high alert. They would park their trucks out here and make sure nothing happened. But now it’s been two years, they forgot about us again and same thing happened,” said Coric.
He said, from now on when it rains, he’s going to monitor the drains himself and step in anytime he sees them getting clogged.
He recommends that others in areas where flooding happens do the same.
“If you’re out on the street, anybody right, and you see the drain overflowing, I know if you can wait for the city that’s great, but it might not come. Just clean it yourself or get somebody that can just to save everybody a bunch of headaches,” said Coric.
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