A video recently posted online shows what happens when police try to arrest a self-driving vehicle – only to find someone inside.
Police in San Francisco have stopped a vehicle operated by Cruise, an independent car company backed by General Motors, in the… Video posted on April 1. Officers approached the car, which was driving without headlights, only to find it empty.
A bystander can be heard saying in the video: “Nobody’s inside – that’s crazy.” The car then speeds off to the other side of the intersection, leaving the police behind.
The video, which has since been widely circulated on social media, sparked inevitable jokes. One Twitter user sneered: “Welcome to the future.”
Cruise is deploying its self-driving technology for the purposes of ferrying passengers, transporting riders around town without a driver. It had been testing its cars with a backup driver in the front seat since 2015, but began letting users welcome self-driving cars in San Francisco In November 2021.
The company said in a tweet on Twitter that the car acted as expected by moving to a safer location on the other side of the intersection where police were able to address their concerns.
“Our AV surrendered to the police vehicle, then stopped to the nearest safe location, as intended. An officer contacted Cruise staff and no citation was issued,” Cruise She said on the company’s Twitter account.
Cruise spokeswoman Tiffany Testo told the Guardian that the car “didn’t have its headlights fitted due to human error, which is why the SFPD approached it, and we’ve fixed the problem that led to that.” She added that the company offered a phone number for the police to call to ask questions anytime a vehicle is stopped. The Refugee Protection Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident or about its policies for self-driving vehicles.
The viral video highlights bumps in the road as companies race to put fully autonomous cars on the streets.
The Cruise video comes just weeks after Waymo, another independent car company, announce Self-driving vehicles will be deployed in San Francisco. Waymo has been on self-driving technology for over a decade and has been running fully driverless rides in Arizona for over a year.
But glitches with self-driving cars have made headlines in the past, including the Waymo that has become stuck in an intersection Rescue required.
Waymo said in March he would Allowing passengers to drive in self-driving cars on an experimental basis. To participate, interested riders must apply for a waiting list and sign nondisclosure agreements for early access.
Nuru, another autonomous car company, also has a permit for self-driving vehicles in San Francisco, but it does Use It’s for self-driving delivery services instead of riding passengers. It already does driverless deliveries in Mountain View, California.
Other self-driving car companies are working on their own technology, including Elon Musk’s electronic car company Tesla and Aurora Innovation, a Pittsburgh-based company.
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