A Cruise driverless robotaxi drove through a green light and collided with an on-duty fire truck in San Francisco.
The firetruck rammed into the taxi in the Thursday night crash, causing the sole passenger in the driverless cab to bump her head.
She was treated at the scene and taken to a hospital for what the taxi company called “non-severe injuries.”
“Our primary concern is the rider and their welfare, and we have reached out to offer support,” Cruise wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We are investigating to better understand our AVs performance, and will be in touch with the City of San Francisco about the event.”
A little after 10PM last night one of our cars was in a collision at Polk and Turk St and we wanted to provide an update on what we know at this time. (1/5)
— cruise (@Cruise) August 18, 2023
The crash occurred a week after the California Public Utilities Commission approved Waymo and Cruise to operate 24-hour driverless taxis in the city.
Robotaxis have had other issues in San Francisco, including a Cruise taxi that drove into wet concrete Tuesday.
“I can see five different scenarios where bad things happen and this is one of them. It thinks it’s a road and it ain’t because it ain’t got a brain and it can’t tell that it’s freshly poured concrete,” resident Paul Harvey told SFGATE after seeing the taxi get stuck.
Since June 2022, almost 600 incidents involving autonomous vehicles have occurred in San Francisco, according to city transit officials.
The day before the crash with the firetruck, San Francisco officials asked the CPUC for a stay on robotaxi legalization while the city seeks a rehearing of the decision.
“We have seen that this technology is not yet ready, and poor AV performance has interfered with the life-saving operations of first responders. San Francisco will suffer serious harms from this unfettered expansion, which outweigh whatever impacts AV companies may experience from a minimal pause in commercial deployment,” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement Thursday.
Fire officials agreed.
“The decision permits industry expansion without solving any of the underlying problems. We do not believe the industry has any incentive to remain at the table and solve their problems. These incidents with Public Safety are not going away,” San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson said in a statement.
Cruise insisted the technology is safe.
“It’s unfortunate to see the city use public resources to bypass that decision and restrict a technology with an excellent safety record used by tens of thousands of SF residents,” a company spokesperson said.
The city’s other robotaxi company, Waymo, said it was following the developments closely.
“In the meantime, we will continue to work with the city of San Francisco in constructive ways while providing safe and accessible mobility to San Franciscans,” a Waymo spokesperson said.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the circumstances of the crash in the headline. The robotaxi drove through a green light when the crash occurred.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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