Hours-long traffic jam caused by fleet of malfunctioning autonomous taxis

A traffic jam occurred at a junction when a swarm of autonomous taxis experienced a malfunction during one of the initial public trials of the technology. For approximately two hours, more than a dozen driverless vehicles operated by Cruise, a driverless car company in San Francisco, came to a halt before employees arrived at the scene on Wednesday. The specific cause of the vehicle’s failure and why multiple cars were affected in the same location remain undisclosed. Some of the cars were stationary at the entrance of the crossroad while others were stopped at the exit.

Cruise, which is backed by General Motors, recently started charging passengers for driverless taxi rides in San Francisco. This service represents one of the pioneering robot taxi systems in a major city, as these vehicles lack a safety driver in the front seat. The company is only allowed to operate the taxis between 10pm and 6am, and their movement is restricted to designated streets. Prior to the paid service, Cruise had been offering free rides to the public for several months.

Cruise acknowledged the issue, stating, “We had an issue earlier this week that caused some of our vehicles to cluster together. While it was resolved and no passengers were impacted, we apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced.” In a previous incident, police officers stopped a Cruise vehicle when it was discovered driving without its headlights on after dark. Confused by the absence of a driver in the car, they reached out to the company for clarification.

Last year, Waymo, Google’s self-driving car spin-off, encountered a similar problem when their cars repeatedly traveled up and down a quiet cul-de-sac in San Francisco, with some residents reporting an influx of over 50 autonomous vehicles per day.