GM’s autonomous vehicle division, Cruise, is currently testing its fully driverless tech on the streets of San Francisco, and, per a recent post to social media, there seem to be a few bugs left to sort through, as a group of Cruise vehicles apparently ended up blocking traffic.
In a recent post, Twitter user @TaylorOgan published a series of photos that show several Cruise Chevy Bolt EVs stopped at the corner of Gough Street and Fulton Street. According to the post, human operators were required to come out and “rescue” the vehicles. Exactly what technical glitch occurred is unknown.
Some @Cruise robotaxis appeared to be stuck in SF last night at the corner of Gough St. and Fulton St.
Human ops apparently had to rescue them. Still some kinks to iron out. pic.twitter.com/eXDocjVfHU
— Taylor Ogan (@TaylorOgan) June 30, 2022
This isn’t the first time the fully autonomous Cruise test vehicles have blocked traffic. Several months ago, Twitter user @sgatz posted photos of a similar situation where at least three Cruise Chevy Bolt EVs reportedly blocked two lanes on Masonic Avenue. Then, earlier in April, San Francisco police cited a GM cruise-operated self-driving vehicle for failing to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk. Although onboard data shows that the self-driving vehicle never posed a danger to the pedestrian and maintained a distance of nearly 11 feet, the onboard safety driver was still responsible for the ticket.
A very San Francisco Saturday night. A pack of 3 driverless @Cruise cars got confused and stopped and blocked two lanes of Masonic. The robots will win just by blocking traffic. pic.twitter.com/63Xi8RG21I
— Scott Gatz (@sgatz) May 22, 2022
Late last month, Cruise began charging customers for rides in its Chevy Bolt EV test vehicles operating in San Francisco. Although the company had previously received a permit allowing it to offer complimentary rides, the company was required to obtain further permits to begin charging money for rides. For now, vehicles are geofenced to the northwest section of San Francisco, and are only allowed to operate between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. However, many test vehicles are now running without a human pilot onboard.
Cruise plans on expanding its operations to eventually include the entirety of the California city. The test vehicles are necessary as Cruise works to develop its autonomous vehicle systems, with plans to launch the Cruise Origin fully autonomous robotaxi sometime in the future.
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Comments
Is anyone really surprised by this?
If anyone thinks these glitches will go away then the smoking is good. It is only a matter of time before a pedestrian is struck.
People hit pedestrians all the time. Really the question is who will run over less pedestrians.
I bet the owner of the AV will be sued for more money.
Sued for what purpose? The car was just blocking the road. Are you going to claim that you never had a problem with your ICE car. Flat tire, blowout, engine issue. This was no big deal. As we know you are just an EV hater. Nothing better to do in your basement. Get out and get some fresh air. Oh! ya I forgot ICE cars pollute so there is less good air.
Why don’t you learn to read before spouting off. I was referring to one of these drones hitting a pedestrian not blocking the street.
I would smashed the windows out if it was blocking me.
What would that achieve? People like you should not be driving.
I would of done it because I can. Also I can be in the passenger seat and still would of done it.
And you would go to jail for that. You were probably last in line for brains.
You have no clue about California if you think I would go to jail for that. Educate yourself before speaking on things you clearly have no clue about.
You clearly know nothing about law.
I live in California and I know exactly how the law works here. So again don’t speak on thing you know nothing about.
I know in California you are allowed to steal up to $1000 before you’re prosecuted. I’m sure most far glass is under $1k per window.
If someone would have some balls in that town, each of those vehicles would be impounded and someone would have to go before a judge and explain what happened and Cruise would be heavily fined. But don’t expect that in a town where people are allowed to steal and deficate on the street.
It all happened because the Cruise went into the Activist Mode and tried to halt traffic, it wound up getting arrested and was immediately released, cuz its you know California.
1920:
“Airplanes crash sometimes! Stop developing and building them!”
That’s you guys.
Airplanes have some value to society. This crap doesn’t.
Only in SF would this stupidity be allowed! How well do the vehicles respond to voice commands or hand signals from a traffic cop? What about construction detours? How are those navigated? This is the dumbest idea ever.
Progress is not without a price. That said said many of persons advocating violence against inanimate objects are more likely to have an accident driving impaired than these AVs . Maybe in the future those cabs will have an allowance for passenger control in “limp” mode. That way if the passenger is only semi functional they can still maneuver the cab off the hang up.
Well, there is no hate here for AV’s, absent the environmental damage that we appear to be tolerating. The only problem I have is that they need to be held to a higher standard than my personal standard. I consider myself a good driver. However, I could easily run over a pedestrian in a blind spot. My 74 Cutlass and 61 Apache 10 have a much smaller blind spot than my 18 Vette, my 14 F150, my 11Denali Yukon XL.
AV’s are supposed to take the dumb ass out of driving because of the additional sets of eyes on the road. They should, because of technology, be intentionally safer. They should be held to a higher standard. And that is regardless of tying up intersections or hitting pedestrians.
There is, in my mind, no surprises/excuses for the problems so far. I can only imagine the entertainment we will enjoy when semi’s are turned loose, which is about to happen in a big way.
Bottom line, we should not tolerate excuses. I, for one, am not willing to tolerate accidents and/or deaths or injury just because they happen now. Sure, statistically they may happen, and some may be unavoidable. Most can, and should, be solved with software/sensor/technology changes/additions/updates, etc.
No pedestrian was hit, and the car was 11 feet away from the pedestrian. I’m sure cars with drivers in them have been much closer to pedestrians. There was also no mention of how long the vehicles blocked the intersection, nor if there were other factors involved that caused it. It’s just like with Tesla … the NHTSA only cares about vehicle fires if a Tesla is involved, yet there are plenty of other vehicle accidents that result in fires. When you are first to “upset the norm” but aren’t part of the norm to begin with, you will be held to a higher standard than the other companies. Many features on cars today were actually created by companies other than the major manufacturers, but the smaller companies were run out of the business because they were a threat to “the Big Three” et al. Technology is going to advance, and we just have to accept that fact, and know there will be growing pains. I can guarantee there are far worse traffic jams in San Francisco on an hourly basis than these cars blocking 1 intersection.
The intersection was apparently blocked for hours.
They can transport the criminals home from jail free of charge of course.
What criminals are you talking about? There are no criminals in this article.
The first pedestrian killed was May 24, 2018 in Tempe AZ. She apparently made an unanticipated move into the path of an Uber that was being tested in “autonomous mode”. It reads like the lady would have been struck whether computer or human controlled.
So let’s hack the cruise software tonight for s**ts & giggles. Send them all to Fulton & Gough to clog traffic. Wow, that was fun & easy and made the national “news”!! The future is so predictable: “Another domestic terrorist group hacked the software of (AV provider) yet again to causing mayhem & mass destruction in the streets of San Fransisco………….
So you want to join the criminals. US really needs you. It will make your country even more hated. Bravo!!!