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"It's unfortunate that state law doesn't allow us to regulate this unproven technology on our streets." The city says it has no record of anyone being hurt by an autonomous vehicle in Austin. Cruise says it takes all incidents seriously and argues it has a good track record after more than 5 million driverless miles. After waves of complaints from residents in Austin and elsewhere, Cruise announced Thursday it was suspending self-driving taxi operations nationwide to build "public trust." The pauses came after one of the company’s vehicles was involved in a high-profile incident in early October where a Cruise vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian in California.
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Cruise and Waymo say they are in constant dialogue with police, fire, and emergency services and have created training programs for first responders to “safely interact” with their vehicles. They also say that every incident is used as training data to be uploaded to the rest of the fleet to avoid repeating the same mistakes. In response to the incident, Cruise issued a statement emphasizing their unwavering commitment to safety.
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Cruise added that the two incidents account for a sliver of the more than 5 million miles traveled by its driverless vehicles. Unfortunately, more and more Cruise robotaxis flooded the narrow Austin street to meet the peak demand, only to join in the traffic jam. Cruise states that at the time, there were limited routes going north and south through the city, and a detour from an alternative route led the EVs to the same doomed parkway. While we don’t agree with the tampering of robotaxis, it’s not unfair to say that the nascent technology has room for improvement, and some feel that urban municipalities should not be used as a testing ground. Regardless, companies like Cruise have come a long way, expanding beyond the Bay Area into new cities throughout California and outside of The Golden State in Austin, Texas.
Are there still self-driving vehicles in Austin?
Cruise driverless cars cause traffic jam in West Campus neighborhood - KXAN.com
Cruise driverless cars cause traffic jam in West Campus neighborhood.
Posted: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Waymo has its sights set on Los Angeles and New York City, while Cruise is testing its vehicles in Miami and Austin, Texas. The companies are under enormous pressure to turn on the money spigots after their parent companies have invested tens of billions of dollars for more than a decade with very little money flowing back into their coffers. Austin's mayor pro tem, Paige Ellis, called the issue a matter of "public trust."
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This isn't the first time that Cruise vehicles have drawn the ire of untrusting residents. Back in January, a driverless car was observed turning into a bike lane. And during another incident, cars were observed treating small residential neighborhoods as throughways. While legal, it caused an unnecessary nuisance to residents who told KXAN that they'd seen as many as 25 cars in a 20-minute span. Robotaxis haven't enjoyed the best public image over the past year. From unmanned traffic jams to protestors condoning straight-up vandalism against cars, both Cruise and Waymo have had a rough start in San Francisco.
Other reported incidents depict time-consuming responses to unusual situations. Cruise emphasized the decision to suspend AV operations "isn't related to any new on-road incidents." (1/3) The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust.
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The sight of a robot traffic jam was unfortunately all too familiar in San Francisco. For months, city officials have complained about blocked roads, obstructed emergency response vehicles, and other bizarre behavior by these driverless cars. A Waymo vehicle ran over and killed a small dog — inspiring a street painting memorializing the martyred canine. And as more vehicles are deployed and the companies begin commercializing the service, more obstructions are to be expected. The companies could do themselves a big favor by doing more outreach. Obstructing emergency vehicles, in particular, is unlikely to help win over the hearts and minds of the residents you’re hoping will become new customers, let alone not piss off the populace you’re trying to serve.
As you can see in the video, one of the Cruise vehicles got stuck in an intersection while committing to a turn, thus further congesting traffic in three different directions. But that hasn't stopped residents from complaining about blocked intersections and interference with emergency services. The department has since reached out to equivalent bodies in Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C. The cars have also gotten stuck in crosswalks, at green lights, in intersections, and even played chicken with other Cruise vehicles. In fact, just have a look at the r/Austin subreddit and you'll quickly see how the self-driving experiment has tested the patience of locals.
Cruise suspends self-driving car operations in Austin, nationwide
Opponents are not likely to take these major changes lying down. In the weeks leading up to the CPUC vote, several videos went viral of people placing orange cones on the hoods of the vehicles, effectively disabling them. They called it the “Week of Cone,” and it was meant to demonstrate how easy it was to confuse these supposedly high-tech vehicles.
The bill also set minimum safety standards for self-driving cars operating in Texas. The legislation, Senate Bill 2205, was celebrated by General Motors at the time. So firefighters couldn't roll the vehicle out of the intersection. Some residents were just weirded out by gangs of robot cars roaming in packs through their neighborhood.
A spokesperson hinted that the problem may have been related to pedestrian traffic, though the footage circulating social media does not show an abundance of people nearby during the gridlock. According to several local news reports, 10 Cruise vehicles sat paralyzed in a busy intersection near the Outside Lands Music Festival, causing a traffic jam and drawing exasperation from witnesses. The company told KPIX that the music festival caused “wireless connectivity issues” with its vehicles. In other words, festivalgoers were overwhelming the cellular networks, making it difficult for Cruise’s vehicles to send and receive information.
In essence, while the recent Austin traffic snarl involving Cruise’s robotaxis was a minor hiccup for some commuters, it underscores the complexities of integrating autonomous vehicles into bustling urban landscapes. Even though Cruise is voluntarily taking driverless vehicles off Austin's streets, the halt is only temporary. Austin is in a bind as it relates to autonomous vehicles, as state law prevents cities in Texas from regulating them. Texas does require autonomous vehicle operators to report accidents and incidents with local authorities, and vehicles must be registered. You can tell that many San Franciscans are sick and tired of playing guinea pig to these tech companies.
After that incident, Cruise has been working to “rebuild public trust." Austin officials said residents complained about the cars not operating properly. The company’s suspension follows the launch of a federal investigation into incidents with pedestrians in San Francisco. A fleet of these self-driving cars has been giving rides to passengers in certain Austin neighborhoods these days. Cruise launched its hailing app in December after wrapping up testing. In a statement to KUT, Cruise said it "has consistently cooperated with each of NHTSA’s requests for information," whether cases warrant an investigation or not, and that it would continue to do so.
On other occasions, firefighters wrote, Cruise employees struggled to move their own disabled vehicles out of the way of traffic. Cruise said the incident occurred when a car, driven by a human, collided with a pedestrian crossing a street against a red light. The pedestrian was then launched in front of an autonomous Cruise vehicle which braked but still collided with the pedestrian, and then pulled over after stopping, dragging the pedestrian forward about 20 feet. Cruise, which is a subsidiary of General Motors, has had an Austin presence since September 2022. In December 2022 it began offering driverless ride-hailing services in certain areas of downtown, Central and East Austin between 9 p.m.
A video posted by a Reddit user vividly portrays the scene—a swarm of Cruise’s robotaxis creating a gridlock on a narrow Austin street. According to Cruise, the traffic debacle unfolded because their fleet found itself in an area with high demand and heavy pedestrian and passenger vehicle traffic. One of their autonomous vehicles got ensnared at an intersection during a turn, compounding the traffic chaos. Cruise said it was reevaluating its operations and trying to earn public trust after it became the subject of a federal investigation for multiple incidents involving pedestrians in San Francisco. The robotaxi dilemma is also shining a light on the divided way we regulate cars in the US. The federal government creates vehicle safety rules, leaving the states to license drivers, register vehicles, and enforce the rules of the road.
Cruise’s efforts to manually reroute the vehicles proved too slow, exacerbating the traffic jam. However, once alerted to the situation, Cruise promptly took control and autonomously guided all their electric vehicles out of the congested area. A lieutenant with the fire station at 506 West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard even fretted in an internal e-mail that driverless vehicles were presenting an issue for fire trucks leaving the station, because the cars would stop in place when they detected emergency lights. On the evening of Saturday, Sept. 30, firefighters responded to a Cruise vehicle stopped in the road and blocking traffic. The screen in the vehicle said a crash had occurred, according to an incident report.
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