Self-driving taxis came stuck, causing large traffic jams in the San Francisco neighborhood of North Beach on Friday, just one day after regulators voted to allow the driverless vehicles free reign of the city.
A video shows human drivers stuck between the driverless vehicles owned by the Cruise Taxi company in San Francisco.
Watch
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
As many as 10 Cruise driverless cars stopped working in San Francisco’s North Beach on Friday night, causing traffic to back up and leaving some questioning the decision of state regulators a day earlier to approve the expanded use of robotaxis in the city.
The autonomous vehicles appeared to be stopped in the middle of Grant Avenue, according to social media posts, with hazards on, blocking other cars from moving.
In a response to the incident, Cruise said the backup was caused by “wireless connectivity issues” that immobilized the driverless cars. San Francisco police confirmed that the cell connectivity issues were caused by the large number of people at the nearby Outside Lands music festival overtaxing the system.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
At about 11 p.m. Friday, as many as 10 Cruise driverless taxis blocked two narrow streets in the center of the city’s lively North Beach bar and restaurant district. All traffic came to a standstill on Vallejo Street and around two corners on Grant. Human-driven cars sat stuck behind and in between the robotaxis, which might as well have been boulders: no one knew how to move them.
The cars sat motionless with parking lights flashing for 15 minutes, then woke up and moved on, witnesses said.
Cruise blamed cellphone carriers for the problem. At 11:01 p.m. Friday, Peskin sent a text message to Cruise government affairs manager Lauren Wilson. At 8:25 a.m. Saturday, she texted back: “As I understand it, outside lands impacted LTE cell connectivity and the ability for RA advisors to route cars.” Outside Lands is a three-day music festival held in Golden Gate Park, four miles from North Beach.
Cruise and Waymo had just been approved to operate unlimited numbers of driverless cars in the city after approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
Meanwhile, social media is full of videos of incidents of cars malfunctioning in cities.
Watch
Watch
Watch
READ: Luxury Electric Vehicle Maker Loses over $500,000 on Every Vehicle Sold
What a waste of money!!! More hazardous than human drivers!