The autonomous vehicles of Cruise, GM’s robotaxi and AV subsidiary, are drawing fresh criticism as they traverse the streets of Austin, Texas, adding to the chorus of complaints already registered against the self-driving EVs by some inhabitants of San Francisco.
Both first responders and residents in Austin report a variety of problems caused by Cruise AVs, including collisions. However, zero injuries or deaths have resulted thus far per reporting by Axios.
The negative reports about Cruise AVs run the gamut from minor traffic blockages to outright crashes, along with various other problems. In one of the more spectacular incidents, a driverless Cruise Origin test vehicle jumped the curb and rammed a “small electrical building.”
The Cruise Origin smacked the wall hard enough “to break some brick off (about an 8-inch hole),” Austin Transportation Department documents said. The accident occurred when the Origin suffered an electronic glitch causing it to halt. When technicians remotely reactivated it, the vehicle left the road and impacted the building at approximately 6 mph.
While Cruise has built human-driven versions of the Cruise Origin with the driver centrally located for testing purposes, this particular vehicle was fully autonomous and driverless. However, the Origin involved in the building collision was self-driving, with no steering wheel or other human-usable controls. Emergency personnel therefore could not drive it back to the road despite it remaining operational, and had to await a tow truck.
The incident was one of 19 complaints registered in July and August 2023, including one in which a resident claimed a Cruise AV nearly ran him down while he was using a crosswalk.
The state of Texas pre-empts municipalities from enacting their own legislation regarding AVs, meaning Austin officials have no control over the robotaxis operating within city limits. The 2017 state regulation requires registration of AVs, use of camera recording devices in the vehicles, and immediate reporting of accidents to the appropriate authorities.
A Cruise representative said that the robotaxi service intends “to be good neighbors in the communities we serve and will continue to meet with the community, with city officials, and with first responders as we expand operations.”
Meanwhile, the city of Austin is working out administrative processes that will allow the police to issue traffic violation citations to the company owning AVs, even though the vehicles have no drivers and therefore can’t be cited under normal traffic rules.
Cruise and its competitors Waymo and Volkswagen are currently operating approximately 125 self-driving vehicles in total within Austin city limits.
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Comments
Who didn’t know this was coming?
The cruise mobiles clogged traffic for around 1/2 hour after a UT game. One just stopped at an intersection. Some friends got held up. They were not happy.
This makes no sense. Cruise doesn’t have the Origin on the streets yet – they are still using the modified Bolts. Axios must have confused the two. Unless they just came out in the last couple of weeks or so?
I agree – I try to follow Cruise news pretty closely, and this is the first I’ve heard that the Origin is on public roads. I think this is an error as the Origin is, I believe, still waiting for regulatory approval from Federal regulators.
This error makes me a bit suspect about the overall accuracy of the article. The number and nature of “complaints” cited is vague.
Total waste of money and R&D!
Where did we go wrong. Running into walls, or objects or any other forms of collision should not be happening with the AV. These vehicles are well trained to perform better and be safe than human drivers. Unless the regional difference affects the AV unlike the way weather ❄️ conditions did, each region should have it’s data 💽 for AV’s safe maneuver and navigation, whatever it takes to reduce risk and anomalies.
Ban them from public roads!
I don’t understand the childish fascination and huge waste of resources on driverless vehicles?? Who asked for them?
Big Brother does not care about what you want.
Cannot get my internet to work all the time in my bathroom; why would I trust my life to a computer hook up.
What they r trying to achieve here with the driverless cars, $ 20 per hour ! driving job ! What a waste