Cruise self-driving cars suspended in California over safety issues : NPR

Table Of Content

• First responders aren't happy with driverless cars
• Taylor Swift turns heel, owning her chaos and messiness on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’
• Some writers and readers wrestle with tough subjects at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
• LAPD seeks public’s help identifying driver, victims in street takeover hit-and-run
• Now in Phoenix
• In A Divided San Francisco, Private Tech Buses Drive Tension

Another limitation is that its driverless vehicles aren't allowed on highways and can't operate during times of heavy fog and rain. Still, it's a major milestone, not just for Cruise, but for the nascent robotaxi industry as a whole. Cruise's permit allows it to operate a commercial driverless ride—hailing service with a fleet of up to 30 vehicles.

First responders aren't happy with driverless cars

Mary Roeloffs is a Forbes reporter who covers breaking news with a frequent focus on the entertainment industry, streaming, sports news, publishing, pop culture and climate change. She’s covered Netflix’s hottest documentaries, a surge of assaults reported on social media, the most popular books of the year and how climate change stands to impact the way we eat. Roeloffs was included on Editor & Publisher Magazine's “25 Under 30” list in 2023 and worked covering local news in the greater Boston area from 2017 to 2023.

Taylor Swift turns heel, owning her chaos and messiness on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

Just before Christmas, the company said it wanted to add more cars, operate during the day, and move into the city's busiest downtown area. Cruise had already been under investigation by federal and state transportation officials after several crashes, some involving pedestrians. In response to the Department of Motor Vehicles’ decision, Cruise pulled its driverless vehicles from the road in California. That's one of the reasons Cruise's newly approved driverless service in San Francisco is being so tightly controlled. Besides being restricted to places and times where there is less traffic and fewer pedestrians on the streets, Cruise's driverless service won't be allowed to operate in heavy rain or fog either. The ride-hailing service initially will consist of just 30 electric vehicles confined to transporting passengers in less congested parts of San Francisco from 10 p.m.

Cruise Self-Driving Cars Struggled to Recognize Children - The Intercept

Cruise Self-Driving Cars Struggled to Recognize Children.

Posted: Mon, 06 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Some writers and readers wrestle with tough subjects at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

In almost all cases, we only know about incidents because of online videos or reports by local people. There are few duties on the companies to report performance or admit their foibles. Some incidents would have counted as everyday snarl-ups if a human was behind the wheel, but the absence of anyone in the car to take responsibility has made it hard for city authorities to know what to do.

California DMV pulls permits for Cruise’s driverless cars over safety concerns

While the Cruise vehicle did initially brake as the company reported, the longer video showed the car began moving again toward the side of the road. Despite those incidents, state regulators voted in August to allow self-driving car companies to expand their operations in San Francisco and other California cities. That prompted the city of San Francisco to file motions with the state demanding a halt to that expansion. The DMV originally gave Cruise a permit for 300 driverless vehicles in San Francisco, but it cut that number in half after one of its cars collided with a firetruck in August. There's video showing a worker standing in the way of the Cruise vehicle as it tries to enter the closed street. They would also like to keep driverless cars out of the city's busiest downtown core—and, crucially, want to see more data-sharing.

Technology

Members have long used street theater shenanigans to gain attention in their fight against cars and to promote public transportation. All it takes to render the technology-packed self-driving car inoperable is a traffic cone. If all goes according to plan, it will stay there, frozen, until someone comes and removes it. SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Cruise and its autonomous cars spent the weekend pulling back some of their vehicles on San Francisco streets following a request from the Department of Motor Vehicles. The UK is less in thrall to tech companies, which provides an opportunity for a more measured discussion. In 2022, I was part of a team led by the Center for Data Ethics and Innovation asking what a more responsible approach to self-driving vehicle innovation would be.

LAPD seeks public’s help identifying driver, victims in street takeover hit-and-run

Just reaching this point has taken far longer than many companies envisioned when they began working on the autonomous technology. Aaron Peskin, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said that first responders who tended to the crash noted a trail of blood from the point of impact with the woman to where the vehicle ultimately stopped about 20 feet away. The human-driven car fled the scene, while the Cruise remained until officials arrived.

Now in Phoenix

A few years ago, when hype surrounding self-driving cars was huge, some high-profile crashes brought attention to the ethics of experimenting with new technologies in public spaces. A Chevrolet Cruise autonomous vehicle with a driver moves through an intersection on June 8, 2023, ... And Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised his electric car company would be running robotic taxi fleet by the end of 2020. The morning after the collision, Cruise showed The Post and other media outlets footage captured by the driverless vehicle. In the video shared via Zoom, the driverless vehicle appeared to brake as soon as it made impact with the woman.

In A Divided San Francisco, Private Tech Buses Drive Tension

The first step is identifying high fidelity location data for road features and map information like speed limits, stop signs, traffic lights, lane paint, right turn only lanes and more. Having current and accurate information will help an autonomous vehicle understand where it is and the location of certain road features. We also measure our perception and prediction systems against our elevated performance criteria, using trained safety drivers as a benchmark.

Even if driverless cars avoid the errors that humans make when drunk or distracted, they make different sorts of mistakes. New modes of transport do not just add another player to the game; they change the rules. When cars arrived in cities in the early 20th century, pedestrians were persuaded or bullied out of the way and infrastructures were remade to suit the new technology. Cruise (owned by General Motors) is now operating 30 driverless cars at night in all but the busiest parts of San Francisco.

We believe AVs will save lives and significantly reduce the number and severity of accidents on America’s and Arizona’s roads every year. AVs will also improve lives - including creating  convenient and safe transportation options for the elderly and those with disabilities. As we begin this journey, we look forward to partnering with local communities to jointly achieve our shared mission of making transportation safer for all. Over the past several weeks we have communicated directly with officials, first responders, and community leaders in cities we’ve previously operated in to share updates on our path forward.

According to the DMV, the Cruise vehicle dragged the woman pinned underneath for about 20 feet, a move that may have worsened her injuries. Whether you have a question or want to report an issue, our team wants to hear from you. The first one on Aug. 11 when several Cruise carspaused for 15 minutes at an intersection in the North Beach neighborhood. A Cruise car with nobody inside was pulled over by police officers, who were unsure what to do.

This will help inform where we ultimately will resume driverless operations. In addition to crashes, stalling and other problems, several riders have admitted to using the driverless cars for nefarious reasons. That lack of control has unnerved city officials, especially as driverless cars created by Cruise and Waymo have become ubiquitous in San Francisco. The cars have caused major headaches in the city, as they have disrupted first responders on numerous occasions, from rolling into scenes cordoned off by caution tape to once colliding with a firetruck on its way to an emergency scene.

“Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives,” Forghani said. Cruise provided additional details of the October 2 collision in a blog post published today. According to the company, which has 40 cameras and sensors mounted on each of its vehicles, its self-driving vehicle quickly swerved and braked in an attempt to avoid a collision with the woman, but still made impact.

It was less than two weeks ago that California regulators gave Cruise and Waymo permission to expand their driverless taxi rides to around-the-clock service. The move made San Francisco the first major city with two fleets of driverless vehicles operating at the same time. Taxi drivers, activists and local officials all spoke against the move—city attorney David Chiu called the rides “not yet safe” and the San Francisco Fire Department has reported 55 incidents this year where self-driving cars posed a problem, the New York Times reported.