Cruise will quickly be deploying fewer autonomous automobiles in San Francisco whereas investigators are trying into “current regarding incidents” involving its fleet. In accordance with The New York Times and TechCrunch, the California Division of Motor Automobiles requested the corporate to chop its fleet in half after an incident whereby certainly one of Cruise’s robotaxis collided with a fireplace truck at an intersection. The hearth truck had its sirens and crimson lights on and was responding to an emergency on the time, whereas the robotaxi has passengers onboard who sustained non-life-threatening accidents. In one other, maybe much less controversial, incident a number of days earlier than that, a Cruise car got stuck in wet concrete.
The DMV mentioned in an announcement that its main focus is “the protected operation of autonomous automobiles and security of the general public who share the street with these automobiles.” It additionally added that it “reserves the precise, following investigation of the information, to droop or revoke testing and/or deployment permits” if it determines that an organization’s automobiles is a risk to public security. The company has requested Cruise to restrict its driverless automobiles in operation to 50 throughout daytime and 150 at evening, at the least till the investigation is completed.
In an explanation concerning the collision posted on the corporate’s web site, Cruise’s Normal Supervisor for San Francisco, Greg Dietrerich, mentioned the robotaxi recognized the emergency car as quickly because it got here into view. It was additionally in a position to distinguish the fireplace truck’s sirens “as quickly because it was distinguishable from the background noise.” Nevertheless, it wasn’t attainable to see automobiles coming from across the nook “till they’re bodily very near the intersection” the place the incident occurred. Additional, the autonomous car had bother predicting the fireplace truck’s path, as a result of it moved into the “oncoming lane of site visitors” to bypass a crimson gentle. Dietrerich mentioned Cruise’s AV recognized the danger of a collision and hit the brake to scale back its velocity, however it wasn’t in a position to keep away from the crash fully resulting from these situations.
The DMV’s request comes only a few days after the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) voted in favor of permitting each Cruise and Waymo to cost fares for totally driverless rides any time of the day in San Francisco. Earlier than that, Cruise may solely provide fared rides with no security driver onboard in restricted areas of town between 10PM and 6AM. The one commissioner who voted towards the businesses’ paid trip growth argued that the CPUC did not have sufficient info to precisely consider the impression of autonomous automobiles on first responders.
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