Robotaxi Incident: One Week Later
A many days ago in San Francisco, an automated Chevrolet Bolt operated by Cruise, GM’s robotaxi business, was mixed-up in a minor crash where it hit the back of a local bus which was driving on the right side of the highway.
Pics of the incident were distributed on Twitter by many accounts, such as @d_bau13 and @BrokeAssStewart (via @realpaintedladies_sf on Instagram). Going by the pictures, it looks like the San Francisco Muni bus got away with minor damages, whereas the electric Chevy Bolt appears to have been adversely affected.
Cruise answered to a tweet, voicing that no one was inside the driverless car and there were no reports of injuries. Also, the demolished hatchback car has been cleared away from the area.
A succinct announcement sent independently of its response on Twitter, Cruise Autonomous Vehicles asserted: “Yesterday, one of our cars engaged in a fender-bender with a public bus. Fortunately, no injuries were recorded, and the ride-share vehilce was not carrying any clients at the time. We remain at work looking into this incident so that corrective action may be taken if necessary.”
Only two days preceding the incident, a pair of Cruise’s driverless cars ran into issues after one of the recent storms to strike San Francisco. This episode resulted in caution tape and scattered cabling being strewn across the pathways, congesting traffic and creating a forlorn sight likened by one Tweeter to “flies caught in a web” in their shared photos.
Cruise asserts that its autonomous taxis, which have been on the streets of San Francisco since June 2022, have travelled over 700,000 miles with no human assistance. At the same time, though, there have been several mishaps related to the company’s cars, often with them becoming stationary on roads for undisclosed reasons.
Generally speaking, the majority of circumstances where robots drove cars ended without anyone being hurt. Nonetheless, a noteworthy situation involved a cell operated by Cruise hitting a Toyota Prius, causing injury to the occupants of both vehicles and naturally leading to the NHTSA opening an investigation into the automated cab firm. Up to now, no real determination has been drawn.
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Sources: @d_bau13 (Twitter), @BrokeAssStewart (Twitter)