SF News Waymo Gets State Approval for Los Angeles and SF Peninsula Expansion — and Freeway Driving The era of calling a robocar to the airport may be getting closer, after the California Public Utilities Commission just granted its permission for Waymo to expand into San Mateo County and down the Peninsula.
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.
Business & Tech Waymo Looks to Expand to the Peninsula, SFO, and Sunnyvale Just as the City of San Francisco is suing the state's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) over the expansion of robotaxi permits, Alphabet-owned Waymo wants to expand its permits further to cover the Peninsula and part of Santa Clara County, as well as LA.
Business & Tech Cruise Is Offering $75K to Settle CPUC Investigation Into Crash In Which Woman Was Dragged General Motors-owned robotaxi outfit Cruise is offering $75,000 to "resolve" an investigation by California regulators into a gruesome October 2 crash incident involving one of its vehicles, which set off a cascade of negative impacts on the company's operations.
Business & Tech GM Sues San Francisco Over Cruise Tax Bill, Which It Says Is Unfair General Motors, the parent company of autonomous taxi outfit Cruise, has filed suit against the City of San Francisco over a $108 million tax bill that it says was incorrectly charged. And this may be some sort of revenge for the city and state's treatment of the company.
Business & Tech In Contrast to Cruise, Waymo Is Touting Its Vehicles' Safety In New Report We started the year with two main competitors in the robotaxi space, but we are ending the year with just one. And that company, Waymo, has a new peer-reviewed study to share that shows how safe its autonomous cars are compared to cars driven by humans.
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.
SF News Cruise Suspends All Driverless Operations In Multiple Cities Following CA DMV Suspension GM-owned Cruise is hitting the pause button on all of its driverless taxi operations in order to "rebuild public trust," the company says, a move that comes two days after the California DMV ordered the company to cease operating its vehicles in San Francisco without a driver present.
Business & Tech California DMV Suspends Cruise Robotaxis From Operating In SF, Indefinitely One of the two companies operating driverless taxis in San Francisco will no longer be able to do so, after the DMV has suspended their permit allowing them to take passengers without a test driver present.
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.
Business & Tech Cruise Announces Software Updates to Its AVs In Response to Emergency Situations After a number of concerning incidents involving its autonomous vehicles getting in the way of fire engines and ambulances, Cruise announced a set of software improvements Thursday aimed at "minimizing operational impact" for emergency responders.
Business & Tech Driver Strikes Pedestrian Near Fifth and Market; Cruise Car Subsequently Runs Her Over and Stops On Top Of Her A pedestrian collision Monday night is likely to provide more fodder for the debate over autonomous vehicles and how they react to certain uncommon situations — and it has Cruise once again in aggressive defense mode.
Business & Tech Cruise CEO Says SF ‘Should Be Rolling Out the Red Carpet’ for Robotaxis in TechCrunch Disrupt Interview In his first major public interview since the DMV cut their San Francisco fleet in half, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said “we cannot expect perfection” from the self-driving cars, and acknowledged a possibility they could leave town if regulators curtail them any further.
SF News In Escalation of AV Backlash, Black-Clad Person Seen Vandalizing Cruise Vehicle With Hammer As has become clear, autonomous vehicles are not going to be allowed to proliferate on San Francisco's streets without some kind of protest. And the latest act of protest took things to a newly aggressive level.
SF News Cruise Rejects Blame From SFFD's Claim It Blocked First Responders in Pedestrian Fatality Incident The autonomous vehicle company says that its driverless cars didn't block an ambulance's response to an emergency incident, which contributed to a person's death, and that it's cooperating with authorities.
SF News SF Fire Department Now Says Two Cruise Cars Blocked First Responders at Scene of Crash, Contributing to Victim's Death An incident report made by the fire department on August 14 suggests that an ambulance was briefly prevented from transporting a patient who was bleeding out following a collision in SoMa.
SF News Day Around the Bay: NYT Reporters Try Out Waymo's Robotaxi Service Three NYT reporters took Waymo's paid robotaxi service for a spin; the death last month of a 63-year-old Bayview woman has been deemed accidental; and Los Gatos 'party mom' Shannon O'Connor missed a court appearance today.
SF News California DMV Steps Into Autonomous Taxi Debate, Tells Cruise to Halve Its Fleet In SF After a series of concerning incidents involving Cruise autonomous vehicles, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued an order late Friday asking Cruise to reduce its fleet of AVs in San Francisco.
SF News Driverless Bus Shuttle Now Being Tested on Treasure Island A fairly cute, compact, autonomous bus is now taking passengers around a loop on Treasure Island, as part of a pilot program exploring how autonomous vehicles (AVs) can supplement public transportation.
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 News SF City Attorney Files Motion to Halt Roll-Out of More Self-Driving Cruise and Waymo Robotaxis City Attorney David Chiu is ramping up the pushback against Waymo and Cruise self-driving robotaxis in SF, filing a motion with the state to reverse their approval of unlimited robotaxis on San Francisco streets.
