Unmanned cockpits may soon become widespread. Photo: JOHN G MABANGLO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Firefighters fighting a blaze in downtown San Francisco, they noticed a taxi approaching them and was about to crush their hose.
But when they approached the driver to ask him to reverse, but no one was inside.
The car was a driverless robotic taxi that used artificial intelligence technology, cameras and radar to—in this case, unsuccessfully—move around city.
After he decided to stop and park in the midst of an active emergency, firefighters took decisive action.
«Finally, one of my guys just smashed the driver's side window with an axe.» Janine Nicholson, Superintendent. from the San Francisco Fire Department, told The Telegraph.
“They then tried to get the attention of the dispatcher. But it took a long time to find someone who could drive the vehicle.”
Multiple self-driving taxi incidents have sparked controversy in San Francisco as tech companies try to break new ground.
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Self-driving car tests have been conducted since last year in certain areas of San Francisco. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, North America.
Testing has been ongoing since last year in certain areas of the city and at certain times.
On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission, the state's regulator, will decide whether to allow the two operators, Waymo and Cruise, pick up paying passengers 24 hours a day throughout the city.
This will mean a massive proliferation of self-driving taxis that will compete with human-driven Ubers and Lyfts.
Waymo is part of Google's parent company Alphabet, and Cruise is part of General Motors.
Chief Nicholson said , that, during the trial period, the fire department recorded 66 incidents, and there were probably more.
“They are not ready for prime time,” she told The Telegraph. «I really ask them to press the pause button.»
Other incidents so far have included driverless taxis running over fire hoses, which is illegal, or in one case actually stopping at the top of the hose. unmanned taxis stopped in front of them, and other fire departments had to be called from afar.
“We saw all sorts of problems,” Chief Nicholson said. “We had shooting, nine people were shot. One of the cars drove up to the scene and stopped. Luckily, we were able to work around this.”
Random stops
On May 21, Waymo's self-driving taxi hit a dog to death.
Waymo defended the self-driving car, saying it «correctly identified that there was a dog on the road» but the animal took an «unexpected path» after jumping out of -behind a parked car.
Other self-driving cars stopped and caused traffic jams, and some stopped, entangled in foggy weather.
After the storm, another one drove through the yellow emergency tape and became entangled in broken electrical wires.
During a strange collision, the police stopped one of the cars for driving at night without headlights, but when the policeman looked out the window, she drove away.
The main problem seems to be random stops, because, having collided with a situation they don't know how to react to, the vehicles remain stationary.
When self-driving cars encounter a situation they don't know how to react to, they stop. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, North America.
Cars and buses behind them are forced to circle them on the sidewalk.
«Disappointing and creepy»
One resident, Debi Durst, described how the self-driving car stopped in the middle of an intersection outside. high school until a technician showed up with a tablet.
“It was a real traffic jam,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle. «He was just running around the car pressing all these things on the tablet to make it work, I guess, and nothing happened.»
She added: «It's a little frustrating and just creepy.» just to see these cars with no one in them.»
San Francisco is the second most densely populated city in America with hilly roads and weather conditions for drivers.
He was chosen to test vehicles on the basis that if they can work there, they can work in any city.
The tech wizards who designed and operate them are not intimidated by the challenges.
They claim that despite the inconvenience, their vehicles are safer than human-driven vehicles.
Autonomous cars do not make mistakes caused by drowsiness, drunkenness or texting.
No collisions in a million miles
Both Cruise and Waymo say their robot taxi fleets have traveled over a million miles without major accidents. It looks like the only victim was a dog.
Waymo hopes to carry 100,000 paying passengers a week around San Francisco by next summer.
The statement says it has come to say that “Every day of delay in the deployment of this lifesaving technology has a critical impact on road safety.”
“In over a million miles of fully autonomous operations, we have not had a collision involving pedestrians or means of violation of the rules or dangerous behavior on the part of drivers.
Cruise said that it has a «vision for safer roads» and is «looking for ways to achieve this goal.» the future» in meetings with San Francisco officials.
Chief Nicholson said, «I know this is how technology develops. You can't stop it, but it has to take everything into account.
“We need to sit down with the engineers and find solutions. There are a lot of smart people on both sides, in technology and in the fire department.”
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