A small fleet of Cruise robotaxis in San Francisco out of the blue stopped working on Tuesday evening, successfully stopping visitors on a avenue within the metropolis’s Fillmore district for a few hours till workers had been in a position to arrive. Fullgist first noticed a Reddit post that featured a photograph of the stalled driverless cabs on the nook of Gough and Fulton streets. Cruise — which is Common Motor’s AV subsidiary — solely launched its business robotaxi service within the metropolis final week. The rides characteristic no human security driver, are geo-restricted to sure streets and might solely function within the late night hours.
Cruise apologized for the incident in an announcement, however gave little clarification for what brought about the mishap. “We had a problem earlier this week that brought about a few of our automobiles to cluster collectively,” a Cruise spokesperson mentioned in a statement to Fullgist. “Whereas it was resolved and no passengers had been impacted, we apologize to anybody who was inconvenienced.”
The GM-backed AV startup gained the primary driverless taxi allow in a serious US metropolis, and commenced providing San Francisco residents free rides in February. After launching its paid passenger service on June 24, early opinions from Cruise passengers got here pouring in. One passenger famous that his Cruise automobile took an unusually long route to get to his dwelling. One other passenger appeared to have a extra constructive expertise, even leaving a money tip for the driverless automobile.
This week’s visitors jam seems to be Cruise’s first main stumbling block, at the least for its business service. Again in April, police stopped a Cruise automobile for not having its headlights on. Officers appeared not sure of how you can proceed after discovering there was no human behind the wheel.
The State of California requires AV firms to report any collision that contain property harm, bodily hurt or loss of life to the DMV, which publishes the info on-line. A complete of 18 reports involving Cruise automobiles have been filed this yr.
All merchandise really helpful by Fullgist are chosen by our editorial staff, impartial of our guardian firm. A few of our tales embody affiliate hyperlinks. For those who purchase one thing by one among these hyperlinks, we could earn an affiliate fee.
