SF News Two Stalled Waymos Gummed Up Lurie’s Chinatown Inauguration Party, But Cops Just Jumped In Them and Drove Away Police can apparently now hop into stalled, confused Waymo robotaxis and drive them away manually, and this reportedly happened twice Wednesday night at Mayor Daniel Lurie’s inauguration party.
Business & Tech Turns Out Blind People Really Love Taking Trips in Waymo’s Self-Driving Robotaxis Here’s one demographic that does not loathe the robot cars driving around San Francisco, as blind people have rave reviews for Waymo’s dedicated features to accommodate people with visual impairments.
Business & Tech Waymo Takes Another Step Toward Entering Airport Taxi Market Waymo could have one of its biggest fights to date on its hands as it pushes toward providing rides between San Francisco and SFO — but a permit process is underway to allow the company to begin mapping the airport for that purpose.
Business & Tech Cruise Fined $500,000 for Filing False Reports to Feds After Pedestrian-Dragging Incident Yet another hefty fine for the self-driving robotaxi company Cruise for sweeping things under the rug after one of its cars dragged an SF pedestrian 20 feet, as the US Department of Justice has hit them with a $500,000 fine for falsifying reports on the incident.
Business & Tech Feds Probing Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ Mode After Pedestrian Killed, Plus Multiple Other Crashes Amidst several reports of Teslas in “Full Self-Driving” mode having crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one crash that killed someone, a federal road safety agency is now investigating whether the Tesla technology might be to blame.
Business & Tech Tech Bros Try to Help Waymo Entangled With Muni Bus, Leave Behind Stalled Waymo A new viral video shows a stalled Waymo getting entangled with a Muni bus this weekend, and when a gaggle of tech bros coming from an industry party try to help, they seem to just make things worse.
Business & Tech Feds Issue Consent Order to Cruise With $1.5 Million Penalty Stemming From Last October's Injury Crash Almost exactly one year after a high-profile crash on San Francisco's Market Street in which an automated Cruise vehicle dragged a woman for 20 feet before stopping, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a fine and a consent order to the GM-backed company.
Business & Tech Of Course a Waymo Got In the Way of Kamala Harris's Motorcade on Nob Hill Friday Night You can't even get a (vice) presidential motorcade through the streets of San Francisco these days without tripping over a self-driving taxi.
SF News Waymo Gets Tagged With Rider (and Little Dog) Still Inside in Mission District The latest SF anti-self-driving car shenanigans were captured on a now-viral video where a team of taggers gangs up on a Waymo and tags the bejesus out of the vehicle, while a passenger and a little dog are stuck nervously inside.
Business & Tech Beleaguered Self-Driving Car Company Cruise Teams Up With Uber for Their Comeback Bid Robotaxi company Cruise currently has its California permits suspended, but they are definitely plotting their comeback, and just announced they’re partnering to offer self-driving Cruise rides on the Uber app.
Business & Tech Waymos Infuriate SoMa Neighborhood With Cacophony of 4AM Horn-Honking In today’s episode of robot cars seeming to be very confused, we have the story of a SoMa parking lot that gets taken over by Waymos every night, and keeps the neighborhood awake as the cars incessantly honk horns at each other around 4 am.
Business & Tech Waymo Expands Robotaxi Service Onto the Peninsula, But Still Can’t Drive to SFO or on 101 Effective today, the self-driving taxi cars of Waymo are giving paid rides into Daly City and Colma, but they still can’t drive on US 101 or I-280, and they cannot drive you to the SF International Airport.
SF News After Many Waymo Near-Collisions at School Crossings, Mayor Breed Vows to Hold Waymo's Feet to the Fire An NBC Bay Area report in May detailed that 25% of SF school crossing guards said they or their school children had nearly been hit by self-driving Waymos, and now Mayor Breed is promising to hold the Google subsidiary more accountable.
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.
SF News Confused Waymo Cars Block 101 On-Ramp In Potrero Hill, Then Go Down Closed Road It’s SF driving 101 that you should not follow a confused self-driving Waymo vehicle down a closed road, but that’s what happened Tuesday night near Highway 101 in Potrero Hill, after a stalled Waymo traffic jam led to the robotaxis veering into a closed lane.
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.
