Photo: @WholeMarsBlog via X
On Monday night, a pedestrian was seriously injured after being hit by two vehicles in San Francisco, including a Cruise robotaxi. The woman was crossing the street when she was hit by a human-driven car and then run over by the robotaxi. On Tuesday, Cruise robotaxis were spotted with human safety drivers behind the wheel. Cruise says this has nothing to do with the accident.
Update: We've updated our story to include Cruise's clarification. We've also attached Cruise's statement at the bottom of this page.
A new episode in the SF-versus-robotaxis saga happened Monday night when a Cruise robotaxi was involved in a horrific accident. Although the autonomous vehicle was not the one that caused it, Cruise once again found itself in the spotlight after the accident victim got trapped under its robotaxi. People and local authorities in San Francisco oppose a more extensive deployment of autonomous vehicles on city streets, and this accident will only inflame an already tense situation.
According to eyewitnesses, the woman was crossing the intersection of Market and 5th streets when she was struck by another car, whose driver fled the scene. The impact threw her into the path of a Cruise robotaxi driving in the adjacent lane, causing it to run her over. The robotaxi came to a halt as it sensed the hit, but unfortunately, the woman got caught under the rear axle with a tire over her leg.
San Francisco Fire Department crews used the Jaws of Life to lift the robotaxi off the trapped pedestrian. Cruise shared the video footage from its robotaxi's cameras with the Police as the authorities tried to identify the driver that initially hit the pedestrian. The investigators also use the material to determine the accident details.
This is the latest incident with a driverless car in San Francisco and one of many involving a Cruise vehicle. This is not unexpected, considering that GM's autonomous driving arm operates the largest robotaxi fleet in San Francisco. Still, it's the most severe accident so far involving a driverless car, as reported by SFFD. In August, California DMV requested Cruise to cut its operations by 50% following several incidents, including two crashes on the same night. Cruise agreed to operate only 50 robotaxis during the day and 150 at night.
The crash on Monday evening will not remain without consequences, especially as it caused a heated debate about autonomous vehicle safety. While autonomously controlling a car's trajectory is not hard to program, reacting promptly to what other vehicles and pedestrians around the car are doing is more complicated. There are countless edge-case scenarios that engineers cannot plan for, and that will always weigh heavily on autonomous driving safety records.
Even if the investigation shows that the Cruise vehicle reacted perfectly to the situation, people would still think a human driver would've done better to stop the car before hitting the woman. This will make life difficult for AV startups like Cruise and Waymo, which are already bleeding money. Insurance costs for those vehicles will go through the roof, further hampering the advancement of AV technology.
Reports indicated that all Cruise robotaxis had human safety drivers as of Tuesday. It's unclear if a human driver would've prevented the Cruise robotaxi from running over the pedestrian, as things sometimes happen far too quickly for humans to even notice, let alone react. Still, it's another layer of safety and is probably meant to appease those who demand a tougher stance on autonomous driving.
Cruise told us that the presence of safety drivers is unrelated to this week's incident. The ride-hailing company does this regularly when testing new software releases. Also, robotaxis with safety drivers are not part of the ride-hailing fleet and do not take passengers.
A new episode in the SF-versus-robotaxis saga happened Monday night when a Cruise robotaxi was involved in a horrific accident. Although the autonomous vehicle was not the one that caused it, Cruise once again found itself in the spotlight after the accident victim got trapped under its robotaxi. People and local authorities in San Francisco oppose a more extensive deployment of autonomous vehicles on city streets, and this accident will only inflame an already tense situation.
According to eyewitnesses, the woman was crossing the intersection of Market and 5th streets when she was struck by another car, whose driver fled the scene. The impact threw her into the path of a Cruise robotaxi driving in the adjacent lane, causing it to run her over. The robotaxi came to a halt as it sensed the hit, but unfortunately, the woman got caught under the rear axle with a tire over her leg.
San Francisco Fire Department crews used the Jaws of Life to lift the robotaxi off the trapped pedestrian. Cruise shared the video footage from its robotaxi's cameras with the Police as the authorities tried to identify the driver that initially hit the pedestrian. The investigators also use the material to determine the accident details.
This is the latest incident with a driverless car in San Francisco and one of many involving a Cruise vehicle. This is not unexpected, considering that GM's autonomous driving arm operates the largest robotaxi fleet in San Francisco. Still, it's the most severe accident so far involving a driverless car, as reported by SFFD. In August, California DMV requested Cruise to cut its operations by 50% following several incidents, including two crashes on the same night. Cruise agreed to operate only 50 robotaxis during the day and 150 at night.
The crash on Monday evening will not remain without consequences, especially as it caused a heated debate about autonomous vehicle safety. While autonomously controlling a car's trajectory is not hard to program, reacting promptly to what other vehicles and pedestrians around the car are doing is more complicated. There are countless edge-case scenarios that engineers cannot plan for, and that will always weigh heavily on autonomous driving safety records.
Even if the investigation shows that the Cruise vehicle reacted perfectly to the situation, people would still think a human driver would've done better to stop the car before hitting the woman. This will make life difficult for AV startups like Cruise and Waymo, which are already bleeding money. Insurance costs for those vehicles will go through the roof, further hampering the advancement of AV technology.
Reports indicated that all Cruise robotaxis had human safety drivers as of Tuesday. It's unclear if a human driver would've prevented the Cruise robotaxi from running over the pedestrian, as things sometimes happen far too quickly for humans to even notice, let alone react. Still, it's another layer of safety and is probably meant to appease those who demand a tougher stance on autonomous driving.
Cruise told us that the presence of safety drivers is unrelated to this week's incident. The ride-hailing company does this regularly when testing new software releases. Also, robotaxis with safety drivers are not part of the ride-hailing fleet and do not take passengers.
Person trapped under cruise vehicle https://t.co/IsNvQgLQlF
— FriscoLive415 (@friscolive415) October 3, 2023
Based on my observation, all Cruise cars have human safety drivers today. pic.twitter.com/B3AA1CavVY
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) October 4, 2023
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