Officials in San Francisco have asked for a halt to the expansion of driverless car聽tests across the city after a series of incidents that have hampered the work of emergency services.
San Francisco鈥檚 position at the heart of Silicon Valley and its wealth of technology talent has made it a hotbed for the driverless car industry. Both Waymo, owned by Google鈥檚 parent company Alphabet, and Cruise, owned by General Motors, operate experimental robotic taxi services in the city. But they haven鈥檛 been without problems.
快猫短视频 has previously reported how autonomous vehicles (AV) from Cruise, for example, have randomly stopped and blocked traffic聽and had a . But details of other incidents with driverless cars have now emerged in letters from city officials.
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The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) has written to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) saying that managers in the City鈥檚 Department of Emergency Management began to notice a number of 911 calls last year from people who had seen such cars stop without reason and block traffic, as well as 鈥渆rratic driving鈥�, such as indicating in one direction and moving in the other.
These unexpected stops on busy streets range from minutes to hours, says one of the letters, giving an example of a Cruise car that reportedly stopped and blocked a San Francisco Fire Department vehicle on its way to a fire. In another incident, a Cruise car entered an area where firefighters were working and nearly ran over their hoses 鈥� it only stopped when firefighters shattered the front window of the vehicle.
Both Cruise and Waymo currently operate small fleets between the hours of 10pm and 6am in a confined area of San Francisco, but each has applied for permission to spread further across the city and operate more cars 24 hours a day.
The SFCTA has now written separate letters to the CPUC about both and expansion plans and called for 鈥渞estraint鈥� rather than rapid expansion鈥�.
鈥淐ruise AVs have made unplanned and unexpected stops in travel lanes where they obstruct traffic and transit service, and intruding into active emergency response scenes,鈥� . 鈥淚f the Commission approves sweeping authorizations for both Waymo and Cruise, the hazards and network impacts鈥� could soon affect a large percentage of all San Francisco travelers.鈥�
Neither Cruise nor Waymo responded to a request for comment by 快猫短视频. However, in a statement, Cruise has emphasised that its safety record 鈥溾��. A Waymo spokesperson has said that the letters aere 鈥渁 standard part of the regulatory process鈥� and.
