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Business & Tech

Tesla Faces New Federal Probe Over Possible Autopilot Crash In Walnut Creek; Also, Musk Seems to Have 'Disbanded' Their PR Department

A Tesla that may have been operating in "Full Self-Driving" mode crashed into a firetruck at high speed on I-680 last month, and this has triggered a new investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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.

We Now Have Video of the Eight-Car Pileup Allegedly Caused By Self-Driving Tesla

A reporter’s public records request has produced video of the Thanksgiving Day multi-car crash that the driver claims was caused by his Tesla in “full self-driving” mode, and hmmm, the reporter who obtained the video is suddenly shadowbanned on Elon Musk’s Twitter.

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.

Business & Tech

Now the Feds Are Looking Into Why All Those Cruise Robotaxis Went Rogue and Swarmed on Gough Street

GM's self-driving taxi arm Cruise will have to answer to federal safety regulators who are now rightfully concerned about several incidents in which the robot cars decided to stop in the middle of streets and block human drivers from getting past, or randomly brake quickly and cause collisions.

Waymo Can Now Offer Driverless Taxi Rides In SF (But Can't Charge for Them)

Joining the likes of General Motors-owned Cruise, Waymo — the Alphabet-owned autonomous car company — is now permitted to give fully self-driven rides in San Francisco after months of testing with drivers behind the wheel.

Business & Tech

GM Cruise Self-Driving Vehicles Have Been Involved in Nine Hit-and-Runs This Year

There’s no evidence that the self-driving cars were at fault in these accidents, but there is a very clear pattern that when people realize they’ve been in an accident with a car that has no driver, they just drive right away.

Business & Tech

GM Cruise Robotaxis Blocked SF Streets More Frequently Than We Knew, One Night ‘Nearly 60’ Cars Stopped

GM Cruise snafus have blocked SF streets with suddenly immobilized self-driving cars at least three times in the last two months, with one incident where almost 60 vehicles stopped, and another where Cruise “lost touch with its entire fleet.”

Report: SFPD Already Using Surveillance Video From Self-Driving Cars

An internal SFPD document obtained by VICE News shows that not only can the SF Police Department pull the camera video from autonomous Waymo and Cruise cars, but more chillingly, that they have “already done this several times.”

Business & Tech

Free Rides In Self-Driving Cruise Taxis Now Available in SF (But You Have to Get On a Waitlist)

If you’re sick of looking at those self-driving cars with droids on top of them, now you can get into one and get a free ride instead — but the program seems unlikely to start for weeks or even months.

Business & Tech

Waymo Is Suing the California DMV to Keep Its Crash Data Secret

Alphabet's self-driving car arm is running up against a roadblock in its path to becoming a fully-fledged autonomous taxi service in California, and that is coming in the form of a legal battle over its crash data.

Business & Tech

Tesla Self-Driving Called Out in Full-Page NYT Ad, Which Claims ‘Millions Would Die Every Day’ if Universally Adopted

A full-page ad in Sunday’s New York Times declares “We did not sign up our families to be crash test dummies for thousands of Tesla cars,” but the ad is affiliated with a rival self-driving software company.

Business & Tech

Why Are Waymo's Self-Driving Cars Constantly Hitting the Same Dead End On 15th Avenue?

Neighbors on one street in San Francisco's Richmond District seem to be witnessing the training of robot cars in the art of the three-point turn — over, and over, and over again.

Business & Tech

If You Would Like to Hail a Robo-car in San Francisco You Can Do That Now With Waymo

Google's self-driving car spinoff Waymo has just launched its autonomous vehicle ride-hailing service Waymo One in San Francisco, with a view toward getting rid of the "safety driver" altogether and letting the robo-cars do all the work.

Detestable Tesla ‘Backseat Driver’ Makes Bail, Buys Another Tesla, Backseat-Drives Again

Tesla troll Param Sharma clearly revels in being public enemy No. 1, as he just bought another new Tesla and drove it from the backseat again in front of TV cameras. Also, he would like us to know he is very rich.

Business & Tech

Tesla 'Backseat Driver' Nabbed By CHP

A man who had been seen multiple times on Bay Area roads happily sitting in the backseat of his Tesla while it drove him places on Autopilot has been arrested by California Highway Patrol. But it sounds like no lessons have been learned.

Business & Tech

Tesla Autopilot ‘Backseat Driver’ Scofflaw Spotted Multiple Times on Bay Area Roads

What appears to be the same detestable Tesla owner was spotted in the highly illegal, incredibly dangerous, and massively stupid act of sitting in the backseat with the Tesla in autopilot mode.

Business & Tech

Trump Pardons Anthony Levandowski, Convicted Thief of Autonomous Vehicle Trade Secrets

Former Alphabet employee, Marin County resident and self-driving technology wunderkind Anthony Levandowski was one of 143 people to receive a last-minute pardon from Donald Trump on his way out of the White House.

Business & Tech

Amazon’s Cartoonish Self-Driving Taxi Prematurely Debuts in Union Square

Zoiks! The new Zoox self-driving taxicab from Amazon was spotted in SF this past weekend, more than a week before its scheduled public debut.

Business & Tech

Waymo Has Taken Its Self-Driving Fleet Off SF Streets Out of Concern For Post-Election Chaos

Safety drivers who are piloting Waymo's self-driving cars around San Francisco as part of a testing program that has been ongoing for several years were instructed on Monday to bring the vehicles back to Mountain View.

Business & Tech

Waymo Unleashes ‘Fully Driverless’ Taxis (In Phoenix Only), Elon Musk Stews With Jealous Tweets

The Google-Alphabet-Waymo dream of fully autonomous taxicabs is a reality as of today, but only in a small patch of the Phoenix, Arizona area.

Business & Tech

Day Around the Bay: Uber Self-Driving Car Operator Charged In Arizona Killing

A federally funded Berkeley lab has stopped its diversity training due to Trump's order, Tom Steyer is selling his Pac Heights mansion for $11 million, and Oregon is being threatened with dry lightning.

Business & Tech

Self-Driving Car Company Cruise Using Food Bank Deliveries To Get Around Shelter-In-Place Restrictions

In the long list of business operations now allowed in San Francisco, autonomous-vehicle testing isn't included. But Cruise, a self-driving car service headquartered in SOMA, is using their cars for an essential service — food delivery — to sidestep current shelter-in-place restrictions.

Business & Tech

Uber’s Self-Driving Volvos Resumed Testing in San Francisco Today

They’re only in the Richmond District, with a human safety driver onboard, but the Uber self-driving cars are back in town starting today.