What’s Driving The Issues With Driverless Vehicles?

Quite recently, San Francisco was treated to landmark moments in automation technology. Over a period of a few months, Cruise (General Motors) in June 2022 and Waymo (Google/Alphabet) a few months later, received permits to offer fully driverless rides between 10 pm and 6 am. Currently, though, only Cruise can charge for such rides, while Waymo awaits its final permit for the same.
 
This brilliant technology though has seen a few problems arise. Since they started operating on roads, a few incidents have crept up and as a result, San Francisco transportation officials are appealing to Cruise and Waymo to stop their expansion for a while, citing safety concerns.
 
Problems arose when instances of malfunctioning or improper parking caused inconveniences to others, especially first responders. In July, a group of Cruise vehicles unexpectedly stopped working and created a traffic jam that lasted for hours with a similar incident noted in September. This was seen with a driverless Waymo vehicle too when it halted in the middle of an intersection.
 
As per reports, officials claim that a Cruise vehicle “created an obstruction for a San Francisco Fire Department vehicle on its way to a 3 alarm fire.” Additionally, reports of vehicles causing issues for active firefighters on separate occasions have also been mentioned. Ahead of this, on some occasions, emergency calls to 911 have been made for passengers believed to be non-responsive, whereas on the arrival of emergency services, it was found that they simply fell asleep.
 
In this regard, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority wrote two letters (Letter 1 & Letter 2) to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requesting to restrict automated vehicles from operating at crowded places at peak hours until they can operate “without significant interruption of street operations and transit services.” An excerpt from the letter reads,” A series of limited deployments with incremental expansions — rather than unlimited authorizations — offer the best path toward public confidence in driving automation and industry success in San Francisco and beyond.”


However, speaking to The Verge on the issue, Cruise spokesperson Aaron McLear said, “Cruise’s safety record is publicly reported and includes having driven millions of miles in an extremely complex urban environment with zero life-threatening injuries or fatalities.”
 
In fact, Cruise is hoping to make this service 24/7 in San Francisco and is awaiting final approvals for the same from the CPUC. Currently, both service providers offer rides in Phoenix (Arizona) and Cruise has presence in Austin (Texas) too.
 
Waymo’s spokesperson Katherine Barna, while speaking to The Verge said, “These letters are a standard part of the regulatory process, and we have long appreciated a healthy dialogue with city officials and government agencies in California,” and added, “Waymo will have the opportunity to reply in our submission to the CPUC next week.”
 
Driverless or autonomous vehicles could be the future of transportation but it has a lot of testing and upgrading to go through before it becomes the norm. What do you think of driverless taxi services and should they be able to operate at any time or do they need restrictive measures? Let us know in the comments below!