Cruise will quickly be deploying fewer autonomous automobiles in San Francisco whereas investigators are trying into “latest regarding incidents” involving its fleet. In keeping with The New York Times and TechCrunch, the California Division of Motor Autos requested the corporate to chop its fleet in half after an incident whereby one in all Cruise’s robotaxis collided with a fireplace truck at an intersection. The fireplace truck had its sirens and pink 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 couple of days earlier than that, a Cruise automobile got stuck in wet concrete.
The DMV mentioned in a press release that its major focus is “the secure operation of autonomous automobiles and security of the general public who share the highway with these automobiles.” It additionally added that it “reserves the correct, following investigation of the info, to droop or revoke testing and/or deployment permits” if it determines that an organization’s automobiles is a menace to public security. The company has requested Cruise to restrict its driverless automobiles in operation to 50 throughout daytime and 150 at night time, a minimum of till the investigation is finished.
In an explanation in regards to the collision posted on the corporate’s web site, Cruise’s Normal Supervisor for San Francisco, Greg Dietrerich, mentioned the robotaxi recognized the emergency automobile as quickly because it got here into view. It was additionally capable of distinguish the hearth truck’s sirens “as quickly because it was distinguishable from the background noise.” Nevertheless, it wasn’t potential to see automobiles coming from across the nook “till they’re bodily very near the intersection” the place the incident occurred. Additional, the autonomous automobile had bother predicting the hearth truck’s path, as a result of it moved into the “oncoming lane of visitors” to bypass a pink gentle. Dietrerich mentioned Cruise’s AV recognized the danger of a collision and hit the brake to cut back its velocity, however it wasn’t capable of keep away from the crash utterly attributable to 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 might solely supply fared rides with no security driver onboard in restricted areas of the town between 10PM and 6AM. The one commissioner who voted towards the businesses’ paid trip growth argued that the CPUC did not have sufficient data to precisely consider the affect of autonomous automobiles on first responders.
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