Business & Tech GM’s Cruise Robotaxis Very Softly Relaunch, But Not In SF, and With Human Drivers Again In a sense, the controversial self-driving robotaxi firm Cruise is back on the road. But they’re not on the road here in SF, their fleet is now much tinier, and there are human drivers supervising things again.
SF News Alleged ‘Waymo Slasher’ Charged With Slashing the Tires on 17 Waymo Self-Driving Cars A 36-year-old man who’s apparently not fond of self-driving robotaxis allegedly went on a tire-stabbing spree against them, and stands accused of slashing Waymo tires 17 times in a three-day span, though the cars’ cameras caught him on video.
Business & Tech Waymo Opens Up SF Service To Anyone Who Wants a Self-Driving Car Ride, No More Wait List Anyone in San Francisco can now hail and ride a Waymo self-driving robotaxi, or rather, anyone in SF with the Waymo app and a working credit card, as the Google-owned autonomous company is opening its vehicles to SF’s masses.
Business & Tech Cruise Fined $112,500 by CPUC Over Pedestrian-Dragging Incident, But Avoids Independent Investigation Cruise was fined the maximum allowable fine of $112,500 for burying evidence in the incident where their car dragged a pedestrian 20 feet. But the self-driving car company got off easy, as state regulators rejected calls for an independent investigation into what actually happened.
Business & Tech Tesla In ‘Full Self-Driving’ Mode Goes Plowing Into Police Car An Orange County Tesla driver wasn’t actually driving his Tesla while cruising past the scene of a fatal car accident last week, and that Tesla in self-driving mode went and crashed into a police car.
Business & Tech Report: Many SF School Crossing Guards Say Self-Driving Cars Have Nearly Hit Them or Children A new investigative report shows that one in four San Francisco school crossing guards have had a “close call” with a self-driving vehicle, though many of the other guards say that the autonomous cars drive better than people do.
Business & Tech Waymo Now Under Federal Investigation For 22 Crash and Safety Violation Incidents Self-driving car company Waymo may have its time in the barrel coming just like the now-suspended Cruise, as the NHTSA is probing 22 separate crashes and safety incidents with their cars. Oh, and Amazon’s Zoox is being investigated too.
SF News Waymo Spotted Driving in Red Bus Lane, About to Make Illegal Left-Hand Turn A video from Sunday shows a self-driving Waymo robotaxi driving in the red ‘bus only’ lane on Van Ness Avenue, and apparently about to engage in an illegal left-hand turn.
SF News Waymo Drives on Wrong Side of Street, But Has Excuse Because of Taunting Unicycle Riders A Friday night incident saw a self-driving Waymo pop into the wrong lane for a couple blocks, but it may have had good reason to do so, because it was being swarmed by electric unicycle riders.
Business & Tech Has the Self-Driving Car Bubble Burst? Some Analysts Say So, As Apple Exits the Autonomous Vehicle Race When the $70 billion tech giant Apple abandons an idea, it may be an idea simply not worth pursuing, which could be the state of the suddenly struggling autonomous vehicle industry.
SF News Waymo Problems With Self-Driving Cars, as Waymo Collisions With Tow Truck Force Software Recall Two self-driving Waymo robotaxis hit a truck being towed in Phoenix two months ago, perhaps confused because the angle of a truck being towed but facing rearward, and the Google-owned company recalled the software running the vehicles.
SF News Peskin Says SFPD Has ‘Promising Leads’ In Hunt for Who Torched That Waymo In Chinatown Saturday Whoever set that self-driving Waymo car on fire in Chinatown Saturday night may have reason for worry, as the district’s supervisor Aaron Peskin claims that SFPD has “promising leads” on suspects.
Business & Tech Self-Driving Waymo Collides With Bicyclist In Potrero Hill A self-driving Waymo robotaxi apparently hit a bicyclist at about 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon at 17th and Mississippi streets, which may put a dent in Waymo’s hopes to be considered the safer of the two big self-driving car companies.
Business & Tech Feds, DMV Investigating More SF Cruise Robotaxi Incidents Than We Realized, Two Cars Allegedly Almost Hit Kids The self-driving robotaxi company Cruise may have had a worse track record of highly dangerous near-misses than previously reported, and faces five state and federal probes into incidents like almost running over children.
SF News State Commission Alleges That Cruise Withheld Evidence, Misled Public in Pedestrian-Dragging Incident The California Public Utilities Commission is hauling self-driving taxi company Cruise to court for allegedly “failing to provide complete information” by leaving out the rather significant detail that their car dragged a pedestrian 20 feet in an October 2 collision.
SF News Cruise Recalling Self-Driving Robotaxis Nationwide, Amidst Report Vehicles Had Safety Issues Around Children While the recall appears temporary, Cruise is pulling all of its 950 self-driving robotaxis from the streets, and a separate report shows Cruise internal communications acknowledged safety issues around children and holes in roads.
Business & Tech Feds Now Investigating Cruise Self-Driving Robotaxis Over Their Behavior Around Pedestrians The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a probe into an unknown number of incidents where Cruise robotaxis allegedly encroached on pedestrians, in the wake of one SF Cruise car running over a hit-and-run victim.
SF News Cruise Vehicle Involved In Collision With SF Fire Truck; Separate Collision With Cruise Vehicle Occurs In Mission It was a rough night for the robotaxis Thursday, with two self-driving Cruise vehicles getting into car crashes — one striking, or getting struck by, a fire truck that was responding to a call, and one passenger was hospitalized with a head injury.
SF Politics Friday’s North Beach Self-Driving Car Clusterf*** Has SF Officials Begging the State to Walk Back Approval Barely 24 hours after getting state approval to run their self-driving cars at all hours in SF, Cruise robotaxis froze up en masse in North Beach Friday night. Now SF City Hall is urging a state commission to go into reverse on that approval.
SF News SF Fire Chief Fumes Over Self-Driving Robotaxis Blocking First Responders Dozens of Times This Year San Francisco Fire Department Chief Jeanine Nicholson notes there have been 39 incidents of Cruise and Waymo robotaxis blocking first responders this year alone, and says the robot cars are “not ready for prime time.”
SF News SF Regulators Have Had It With Self-Driving Cruise, Waymo Mishaps, Ask State To Halt Expansion In light of 92 incidents in seven months of self-driving Cruise and Waymo cars stopping, idling, and causing havoc on San Francisco streets, the SF County Transportation Authority is asking the state to hold off on giving them more expanded permits.
Business & Tech Self-Driving Waymo Drives Self Into Construction Site, Doesn’t Know What To Do The latest San Francisco driverless car mishap involves an autonomous Waymo vehicle driving upon a construction site, stopping in front of a trench in the ground, then having no idea what to do as construction workers have a good laugh at the robot car’s confused state.
Business & Tech Tesla In Self-Driving Mode Blamed For Eight-Car Pileup On Bay Bridge We are now learning that a Thanksgiving Day multi-car crash that injured nine people is being blamed on a Tesla in “full self-driving” mode, as the Tesla reportedly came to an abrupt stop after a lane change, causing a chain-reaction pileup in the Yerba Buena tunnel.
SF News Tesla Releases Self-Driving Car Software, Still Requires Hands On The Wheel Someday soon, Tesla's autonomous cars will absolutely change the face of transportation. They've done it before: Elon Musk's automaker has already revolutionized technologies for, and not least perceptions of, the electric vehicle. But
SF News Fixie Bikes Confuse Google's Self-Driving Cars: Could This Become The Most SF Problem Ever? At a four-way stop in Austin, Texas, a cyclist on a fixed-gear bike — or a "fixie" as the in-group calls them — baffled one of Google's self-driving vehicles. Could it be a harbinger for