Driverless cars have become a common sight in San Francisco, equipped with electronic sensors and driving themselves around the city. However, two companies looking to expand driverless taxi services in the city are facing resistance from officials and activists. The debate surrounding these driverless cars acts as a test for the city’s acceptance of new tech ideas. The success of self-driving cars in San Francisco could also determine their viability in other communities and prove that the substantial investments made by the tech and auto industries into autonomous driving technology will pay off.
The California Public Utilities Commission (C.P.U.C.) is set to vote on a plan that would allow General Motors-owned Cruise and Waymo, backed by Alphabet (Google’s parent company), to offer paid driverless rides throughout the city 24/7. Cruise currently offers paid rides late at night in a specific part of the city, while Waymo only provides free rides. Both companies also operate their driverless cars without passengers to gather real-world experience and improve their technology.
While these driverless cars have not been involved in any serious accidents or injuries, there have been incidents that have raised concerns. Local news media have reported instances where the cars shut down and refuse to move when faced with unexpected obstacles like wires, fire hoses, or dense fog. Ahead of the C.P.U.C. hearing, civic groups, including taxi drivers and public transit activists, protested outside the commission’s offices. One activist group, Safe Street Rebel, has even discovered that placing a traffic cone on the cars’ hood can make them shut down. Waymo considers these pranks as vandalism.
The fact that the state and not the city has the final say on the expansion of driverless car services has frustrated community groups who fought for the expansion of bicycle-only lanes in the city, among other things. Some argue that this decision-making process takes power away from local cities and residents who experience the impact of autonomous vehicles on their streets.
City officials have raised concerns that the driverless cars impede emergency responders and accuse the operating companies of being slow to address these issues. The San Francisco Fire Department reported 55 incidents this year where firefighters had to deal with self-driving cars, including instances where firefighters had to physically intervene by hitting the cars’ hood or smashing windows to make them stop. The companies responded by saying their average response times were 10 minutes for Waymo and 14 minutes for Cruise, but technicians cannot operate the vehicles remotely.
Cruise reported 177 incidents where their vehicles got stuck on the road and had to be removed, 26 of which had passengers inside, while Waymo reported 58 incidents over the first six months of the year where vehicles with passengers had to be retrieved. Waymo claims that in its first million miles of fully autonomous driving, there have been no reported injuries caused by their cars, attributing every collision to human drivers’ rule violations or dangerous behavior.
City officials argue that the data provided by the companies is incomplete and have called for additional data to assess the safety of these cars. In a joint letter, two transportation agencies and the city’s planning commission requested more information to determine whether the technology is safe enough to operate throughout the city. A separate analysis by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority concluded that self-driving cars, on average, caused more injuries than vehicles operated by human drivers. However, the C.P.U.C. dismissed this analysis, claiming it only considered incidents where human drivers were at fault.
While the local tech community generally supports the expansion of driverless car programs, officials opposing it have been labeled as “ideologically driven” and accused of “hating technologies” by some members of the community.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
