Cruise will quickly be deploying fewer autonomous automobiles in San Francisco whereas investigators are wanting into “current regarding incidents” involving its fleet. In accordance with The New York Instances and TechCrunch, the California Division of Motor Autos requested the corporate to chop its fleet in half after an incident whereby considered one of Cruise’s robotaxis collided with a hearth 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 couple of days earlier than that, a Cruise car bought caught in moist concrete.
The DMV stated in a press release that its major 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 proper, 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, at the very least till the investigation is completed.
In a proof in regards to the collision posted on the corporate’s web site, Cruise’s Normal Supervisor for San Francisco, Greg Dietrerich, stated the robotaxi recognized the emergency car as quickly because it got here into view. It was additionally in a position to distinguish the hearth truck’s sirens “as quickly because it was distinguishable from the background noise.” Nonetheless, it wasn’t doable 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 hassle predicting the hearth truck’s path, as a result of it moved into the “oncoming lane of visitors” to bypass a crimson gentle. Dietrerich stated Cruise’s AV recognized the danger of a collision and hit the brake to cut back its pace, however it wasn’t in a position to keep away from the crash utterly attributable to these situations.
The DMV’s request comes just some days after the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) voted in favor of permitting each Cruise and Waymo to cost fares for absolutely 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 the town between 10PM and 6AM. The one commissioner who voted in opposition to the businesses’ paid trip growth argued that the CPUC did not have sufficient info to precisely consider the affect of autonomous automobiles on first responders.