A video just lately posted on-line exhibits what occurs when police attempt to apprehend an autonomous car – solely to search out no one inside.
Police in San Francisco stopped a car operated by Cruise, an autonomous automobile firm backed by Normal Motors, in a video posted on 1 April. Officers approached the automobile, which had been driving with out headlights, solely to search out it was empty.
“Ain’t no one in it – that is loopy,” a bystander could be heard saying within the video. The automobile then speeds away to the opposite aspect of the intersection, leaving the police behind.
The video, which has since circulated broadly on social media, prompted inevitable jokes. “Welcome to the long run,” quipped one Twitter consumer.
Cruise is working to deploy its autonomous driving expertise for ride-hailing functions, transporting riders across the metropolis with no driver. It has been testing its autos with a backup driver within the entrance seat since 2015, however it began permitting customers to hail driverless automobiles in San Francisco in November 2021.
The corporate mentioned in a tweet that the car had behaved as anticipated by shifting to a safer location on the opposite aspect of the intersection the place police have been in a position to deal with their considerations.
“Our AV yielded to the police car, then pulled over to the closest protected location, as supposed. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no quotation was issued,” Cruise mentioned on its company Twitter account.
A Cruise spokeswoman, Tiffany Testo, instructed the Guardian that the car “didn’t have its headlights on due to a human error, which was the explanation the SFPD approached it, and we’ve fastened the difficulty that led to this”. She added that the corporate supplied a cellphone quantity for police to name with questions any time a car is pulled over. The SFPD didn’t instantly reply to request for remark concerning the incident or about its insurance policies for driverless autos.
The viral video underscores the bumps within the street as corporations race to place totally autonomous autos on streets.
The Cruise video comes simply weeks after Waymo, one other autonomous automobile firm, introduced it might deploy driverless autos in San Francisco. Waymo has been engaged on autonomous driving expertise for greater than a decade and operating totally driverless rides in Arizona for greater than a 12 months.
However driverless automobile glitches have made headlines previously, together with a Waymo car that turned caught at an intersection and required rescue.
Waymo mentioned in March it might enable passengers in its driverless automobiles on a trial foundation. To partake, riders should apply for a waitlist and signal non-disclosure agreements to get early entry.
Nuro, one other autonomous automobile firm, additionally has a allow for driverless autos in San Francisco, however is utilizing it for self-driving supply companies fairly than passenger rides. It’s already making driverless deliveries in Mountain View, California.
Different driverless automobile companies are engaged on their very own expertise, together with Elon Musk’s digital automobile firm Tesla and Aurora Innovation, an organization primarily based in Pittsburgh.