In San Francisco, technological “disruption” is often framed as good. It’s the goal of “move fast, break things” and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs: innovation, paradigm shifts, etc… But, so far, in the original sense of the word, self-driving taxi companies are taking flight and Waymo is crashing the streets of San Francisco.
Self-driving vehicles have caused numerous delays to the city’s public transportation system. Dashcam videos show the trademark orange and white cars interfering with bus and light rail tracks via unexpected stops, ill-advised turns, and other inconsequential actions, such as First reported by Wired on monday. This report came on the heels of a recent collision between Cruze’s car and a car The SF public bus that led to a software-based recall earlier this month.
Cruise self-driving cars, which operates as a subsidiary of General Motors, and a similar automated vehicle from Alphabet is owned by Waymo Caused at least 12 reported incidents involving the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (aka Mooney) in less than seven months between September 2022 and the beginning of March 2023. Eight of those were arrested On video, per Wired. In total, documented interactions between transit and high-tech taxis resulted in more than 80 minutes of delays for Muni passengers.
The report indicated that the true number of accidents and delayed minutes may be much higher. Between May and December 2022, self-driving cars in San Francisco reportedly made 92 unplanned stops, more than 80 of which were along roads serving as transit routes.
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in one video Obtained by Wired, a Waymo car stops in the middle of Boulevard on March 5th. The AV faces a public bus recording dashcam. The bus has nowhere to go. The Waymo vehicle stays where it is, parked among the parked cars, until finally a human roadside assistance crew member in the company receipt. “This isn’t smart yet. Not smart,” the bus driver reportedly said via radio to Muni management.
in Another video As of September 30, 2022, driving a cruise vehicles at an intersection and stops only narrowly before crossing completely into the direct track of a light rail train. However, Cruz’s car blocks part of the light rail path. If the transport operator had also not been able to stop in time, the collision would have obviously occurred. Inside the car, sync footage shows riders who are thrown sideways due to sudden braking. Other videos also capture self-driving vehicles blocking light rail tracks for minutes on end until the human drivers are finally called upon to re-locate the self-driving cars away from where their mistakes occurred.
another one The recording appears A Waymo car turns left at an intersection where there is a stop sign while a bus approaches the same intersection, where it should be able to proceed without stopping. Bus drivers are slowing down to accommodate Waymo’s vehicle — though Waymo told Wired that slowdown was unnecessary, based on the company’s virtual simulation after the fact. According to Waymo, the bus could have continued at its normal speed and no accident would have occurred. Personally, while watching the video, I’m glad the bus didn’t take any risks and chose to slow down.
Gizmodo has reached out to Waymo for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
In an email to Gizmodo, Cruise restated a claim that has been made elsewhere before, including Wired. The company says its technology errs on the side of caution and stops when there’s no other obvious, safe option.
“Improving road safety is our main mission — not just for cruise passengers, but for everyone we share the road with,” Hannah Lindow, a spokeswoman for the company, wrote in an email to Gizmodo.
However, while this may be the goal, it is clearly not always the reality. On March 23, Mooney’s bus was hit by Cruz’s car. The company said no one was hurt, and later described the incident as a “bent fender.” blog post. In response, last week, Cruise was created Voluntary recall of the program on 300 of its vehicles in the aftermath of a collision, to update how its vehicles interact with double-length, articulated buses.
Cruise started Driverless rides in San Francisco in June 2022get city greenA light to power 30 vehicles during night hours in designated areas. The current number of cars in SF is unclear, and the company declined to provide details on fleet size. Cruise was the first AV company to receive this driverless approval. Waymo followed suit, getting its rubber stamp in August.
Since last summer, actual accidents involving Cruise and Waymo vehicles appear to have been rare, but there have been multiple vehicle accidents Behaving erratically And Street blockages. Companies have done their best to hide the true losses of their technology. Waymo successfully to be able to keep it Hide the safety of its autonomous vehicles and crash data.
Obviously, human drivers make a lot of mistakes, too. Often, the results can be fatal. But the introduction of auxiliary compounds to SF (and Austin and PhoenixStreets have not yet affected road safety. Instead, for the time being, the vehicles seem to be complicating things – adding another possible cause for idling in the city’s already congested networks.
“We are always working to improve our technology and apologize to anyone who is upset by these crashes — but it is important that they are seen against the deeply troubling status quo of road accident injuries and deaths in San Francisco,” Lindow told Gizmodo. “Autonomous vehicles are still new and understandably attracting a great deal of attention with certain behavior, but we are proud of our safety record and remain committed to doing everything we can to make the roads safer.”
But perhaps the thing that makes roads safer isn’t self-driving cars. Maybe still just Fewer cars in general.
(tags for translation) waymo