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"It's unfortunate that state law doesn't allow us to regulate this unproven technology on our streets." A lieutenant with the fire station at 506 West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard even fretted in an internal e-mail that driverless vehicles were presenting an issue for fire trucks leaving the station, because the cars would stop in place when they detected emergency lights. Cruise said the incident occurred when a car, driven by a human, collided with a pedestrian crossing a street against a red light.
Driver charged with DWI after crashing into 10 vehicles
'Robot cars' cause massive traffic jam in Austin after losing complete control - Marca English
'Robot cars' cause massive traffic jam in Austin after losing complete control.
Posted: Wed, 20 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The company has also been cutting contract workers that supported the company’s ride-hailing services. The company did not say if Austin workers were affected or how many positions were cut. As Cruise's fleet has expanded in Austin, formal and informal complaints — along with viral videos of cars stalling out or veering into lanes — have followed suit. Austin City Council member Paige Ellis, who chairs the city’s mobility committee, said Austinites had complained the city wasn’t doing enough to vet Cruise. The city is limited in its ability to regulate self-driving cars, she said.
Semitruck crashes into 10 parked vehicles in east …
Cruise says it takes all incidents seriously and argues it has a good track record after more than 5 million driverless miles. Austin's internal reporting system was one of several improvised responses by local officials powerless to regulate an experimental new industry that's using Austin's streets as a laboratory. The Texas Legislature stopped cities from regulating self-driving cars in 2017. After waves of complaints from residents in Austin and elsewhere, Cruise announced Thursday it was suspending self-driving taxi operations nationwide to build "public trust." According to the team at Cruise, the fleet ended up in a high-demand area, which also brought with it a slew of pedestrian and passenger vehicle traffic.
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Cruise first announced it would expand to Austin in September 2022 and began offering fully autonomous rideshare services in December. Its rideshare service operates similarly to other rideshare services such as Uber or Lyft where users are able to request a ride in Cruise’s app and then be picked up and dropped off at specific locations. In Austin, Cruise has been operating in select areas of downtown, Central and East Austin between 9 p.m. At least four driverless car companies are testing vehicles in Austin. Cruise, which is mostly owned by General Motors, was the only one without humans behind the wheel, city staff said. Waymo, Volkswagen's ADMT and AV Ride have 25, 10 and 4 vehicles in Austin, respectively, all with test drivers.
The pauses came after one of the company’s vehicles was involved in a high-profile incident in early October where a Cruise vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian in California. After that incident, Cruise has been working to “rebuild public trust." Austin is in a bind as it relates to autonomous vehicles, as state law prevents cities in Texas from regulating them.
Meanwhile, the meeting with Cruise comes as federal regulators began an investigation into the company's vehicle following reports that two pedestrians were injured in San Francisco. Earlier in September, Austin firefighters responded to a car crash around 3 a.m. When they arrived, four Cruise employees were already there, an incident report said. Cruise told KUT the empty vehicle had been hit by a driver running a stop sign. On other occasions, firefighters wrote, Cruise employees struggled to move their own disabled vehicles out of the way of traffic. Cruise, which is a subsidiary of General Motors, has had an Austin presence since September 2022.
Over a Dozen Robotaxis Cause Massive Traffic Jam in Austin - autoevolution
Over a Dozen Robotaxis Cause Massive Traffic Jam in Austin.
Posted: Sun, 24 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The company also clarified in the same post thread that the decision was not related to any new on-road incidents and that supervised autonomous vehicle operations will continue. Austin's Downtown Commission met with staff from the driverless rideshare company Cruise on Wednesday. Cruise currently operates at least 50 cars in Austin and just recently launched in Houston after a trial run. The company said it was suspending self-driving car operations nationwide to "reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust." Local news channel KVUE also outlined a separate incident that occurred earlier this week involving a Cruise vehicle stopped in an intersection. That incident caught the eye of Austin City Council Member Zohaib Qadri.
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Some residents were just weirded out by gangs of robot cars roaming in packs through their neighborhood. The company already has a substantial list of existing incidents in Austin. Less than a week ago, I wrote about the big win for Cruise and Waymo in San Francisco. After months of debate and even a delayed vote by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), they got approval to run their robotaxis commercially 24/7 in San Francisco. “As someone who has honestly dealt with Cruise cars myself … it never seemed like they were ready for prime time,” he said. Qadri said he’s pleased with Cruise's decision to suspend services.
Cruise cars that are being operated by humans will still be on the roads. In an email to KUT, the company said the decision is not related to any new on-road incidents. “You’re taught, when you’re riding a bike that you have to make eye contact with the driver, or when you’re crossing the street, you have to make eye contact with the driver at every stop sign intersection. So it’s kind of hard to predict what they’re going to do at an intersection,” said Qadri. The last thing I want to see is someone getting hit by a car, whether a pedestrian or cyclist, and get injured,” said Qadri.
Robotaxis haven't enjoyed the best public image over the past year. From unmanned traffic jams to protestors condoning straight-up vandalism against cars, both Cruise and Waymo have had a rough start in San Francisco. So much so that the officials who granted them seemingly unfettered access to the city have reined in the driverless cars to avoid further public outcry, at least for the time being.
Those incidents have been piling up since Cruise began operating driverless cars in Austin last year. Records obtained by KUT show residents calling 311 to say they were almost hit by autonomous vehicles. A video posted by a Reddit user vividly portrays the scene—a swarm of Cruise’s robotaxis creating a gridlock on a narrow Austin street. According to Cruise, the traffic debacle unfolded because their fleet found itself in an area with high demand and heavy pedestrian and passenger vehicle traffic. One of their autonomous vehicles got ensnared at an intersection during a turn, compounding the traffic chaos.
Unfortunately, some of Cruise’s growing pains in Austin were caught on camera as a swarm of robotaxis flooded a congested area. We spoke to Cruise and got the lowdown about what exactly happened.
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