California DMV hits brakes on Cruise's SF driverless fleet after series of fender benders
(2023/08/21)
- Reference: 1692628092
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/08/21/cruise_must_halve_autonomous_fleet/
- Source link:
San Francisco Bay Area techies who want to hail a driverless Cruise robo-taxi have fewer to pick from after officials said it must reduce its fleet "immediately" in the wake of several incidents, just a day after a collision between an emergency vehicle and an AV on Thursday night.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said it was "investigating recent concerning incidents involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco" and is in contact with both Cruise and law enforcement officials. It said its "primary focus" was "the safe operation of autonomous vehicles and safety of the public who share the road with these vehicles," adding it was investigating to "determine the facts."
The DMV [1]said in a statement on Friday night that the company must slice its city fleet in half, meaning it would have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150 driverless vehicles in operation at night.
[2]
The night before, Cruise vehicles were involved in two collisions. The first collision was with first responders. The company [3]tweeted that one of its cars had "entered the intersection on a green light and was struck by an emergency vehicle that appeared to be en route to an emergency scene." It added that its "car contained one passenger who was treated on scene and transported via ambulance for what we believe are non-severe injuries."
[4]
[5]
Cruise said in an [6]update on Friday that its AV "did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision."
It added: "The AV's ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle's path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light."
[7]
We have asked the company for further comment.
In a [8]report [PDF] released earlier this month, the San Francisco Fire Department said it had logged around 50 written reports of interference from Cruise and Waymo robo-taxis where they had blocked fire station ingress/egress or transit to locations, and other forms of intrusive driving behavior. The firefighters said in the report: "Cruise & Waymo do not disclose counts of unexpected stops or other incidents that impeded first responders."
The DMV said of its decision to halve the Cruise fleet:
The DMV reserves the right, following investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits if there is determined to be an unreasonable risk to public safety.
It did not refer to specific incidents in its statement.
In a second collision on Thursday evening, at 26th and Mission Streets, a Dodge Charger collided with a Cruise AV. "The human-operated vehicle had likely run a red light, resulting in the collision. So, in this case, the autonomous vehicle did not appear to be at fault for the collision," SF police sergeant Kathryn Winters told [9]CBS news . An onlooker told the outlet the Dodge Charger "was completely totaled. I mean it was just wiped. There was fluid leaking everywhere. Airbags were all deployed. It seems scary. Fortunately, the [driver] was OK and no injuries."
[10]Tesla knew Autopilot weakness killed a driver – and didn't fix it, engineers claim
[11]Cruise self-driving taxi gets wheels stuck in wet cement
[12]Pack of GM Cruise robo-taxis freeze, snarl up Friday night traffic amid festival crowds
[13]US Air Force burns more money on electric flying taxis
The news means it's one step forward, one step back for General Motors' robo-fleet, coming 10 days after it was given the green light to accelerate the rollout of its self-driving Cruise taxis in the US state by the California Public Utilities Commission. The commission had been moving against vocal opposition from police, firefighters, and other city agencies when it voted to expand the hours of operation for GM Cruise and Waymo robo-taxis in San Francisco.
The very next day, August 11, as we [14]reported at the time , several of the robo-rides broke down – holding up traffic on a busy night – after the units reportedly lost wireless connectivity.
[15]
The Reg previously [16]spoke to software engineer Alain Dekker, who said any highly trained AI is likely to have blindspots akin to a situation where an autonomous or semi-autonomous car, for example, could drive "into the side of a van because it has mistaken its light color for the skyline."
Dekker said that adding more and more complexity in the computer vision software to cover the blindspots is partly why it is so hard to get it working well, and why it might take longer than anticipated to get driverless cars on our roads. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2023-08-19/statement-from-california-dmv-on-cruise-autonomous-vehicles
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://twitter.com/Cruise/status/1692491370642997444
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://getcruise.com/news/blog/2023/further-update-on-emergency-vehicle-collision/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2023/08/2023.08.07_cpuc_status_conference_8.7.2023_final.pdf
[9] https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/robotaxi-crashes-san-francisco-focus-autonomous-vehicle-safety/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/17/tesla_autopilot_engineers_claims/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/16/cruise_selfdriving_taxi_gets_stuck/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/14/gm_cruise_waymo_robotaxis/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/31/air_force_evtols/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/14/gm_cruise_waymo_robotaxis/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/20/human_go_ai_defeat/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said it was "investigating recent concerning incidents involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco" and is in contact with both Cruise and law enforcement officials. It said its "primary focus" was "the safe operation of autonomous vehicles and safety of the public who share the road with these vehicles," adding it was investigating to "determine the facts."
The DMV [1]said in a statement on Friday night that the company must slice its city fleet in half, meaning it would have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150 driverless vehicles in operation at night.
[2]
The night before, Cruise vehicles were involved in two collisions. The first collision was with first responders. The company [3]tweeted that one of its cars had "entered the intersection on a green light and was struck by an emergency vehicle that appeared to be en route to an emergency scene." It added that its "car contained one passenger who was treated on scene and transported via ambulance for what we believe are non-severe injuries."
[4]
[5]
Cruise said in an [6]update on Friday that its AV "did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision."
It added: "The AV's ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle's path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light."
[7]
We have asked the company for further comment.
In a [8]report [PDF] released earlier this month, the San Francisco Fire Department said it had logged around 50 written reports of interference from Cruise and Waymo robo-taxis where they had blocked fire station ingress/egress or transit to locations, and other forms of intrusive driving behavior. The firefighters said in the report: "Cruise & Waymo do not disclose counts of unexpected stops or other incidents that impeded first responders."
The DMV said of its decision to halve the Cruise fleet:
The DMV reserves the right, following investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits if there is determined to be an unreasonable risk to public safety.
It did not refer to specific incidents in its statement.
In a second collision on Thursday evening, at 26th and Mission Streets, a Dodge Charger collided with a Cruise AV. "The human-operated vehicle had likely run a red light, resulting in the collision. So, in this case, the autonomous vehicle did not appear to be at fault for the collision," SF police sergeant Kathryn Winters told [9]CBS news . An onlooker told the outlet the Dodge Charger "was completely totaled. I mean it was just wiped. There was fluid leaking everywhere. Airbags were all deployed. It seems scary. Fortunately, the [driver] was OK and no injuries."
[10]Tesla knew Autopilot weakness killed a driver – and didn't fix it, engineers claim
[11]Cruise self-driving taxi gets wheels stuck in wet cement
[12]Pack of GM Cruise robo-taxis freeze, snarl up Friday night traffic amid festival crowds
[13]US Air Force burns more money on electric flying taxis
The news means it's one step forward, one step back for General Motors' robo-fleet, coming 10 days after it was given the green light to accelerate the rollout of its self-driving Cruise taxis in the US state by the California Public Utilities Commission. The commission had been moving against vocal opposition from police, firefighters, and other city agencies when it voted to expand the hours of operation for GM Cruise and Waymo robo-taxis in San Francisco.
The very next day, August 11, as we [14]reported at the time , several of the robo-rides broke down – holding up traffic on a busy night – after the units reportedly lost wireless connectivity.
[15]
The Reg previously [16]spoke to software engineer Alain Dekker, who said any highly trained AI is likely to have blindspots akin to a situation where an autonomous or semi-autonomous car, for example, could drive "into the side of a van because it has mistaken its light color for the skyline."
Dekker said that adding more and more complexity in the computer vision software to cover the blindspots is partly why it is so hard to get it working well, and why it might take longer than anticipated to get driverless cars on our roads. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2023-08-19/statement-from-california-dmv-on-cruise-autonomous-vehicles
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://twitter.com/Cruise/status/1692491370642997444
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://getcruise.com/news/blog/2023/further-update-on-emergency-vehicle-collision/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2023/08/2023.08.07_cpuc_status_conference_8.7.2023_final.pdf
[9] https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/robotaxi-crashes-san-francisco-focus-autonomous-vehicle-safety/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/17/tesla_autopilot_engineers_claims/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/16/cruise_selfdriving_taxi_gets_stuck/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/14/gm_cruise_waymo_robotaxis/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/31/air_force_evtols/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/14/gm_cruise_waymo_robotaxis/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZOOKJNjH2hWds0bXTWfTHQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/20/human_go_ai_defeat/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Well forget the second accident
abend0c4
no programming in the world that can prevent a vehicle from being broadsided by a moron
That's one of many reasons why, ultimately, we'll end up with fleets of these vehicles running on dedicated routes much as we always have in cities and dependent on common control and signalling.
*Sniff Sniff*
Lil Endian
The [California Public Utilities Commission] had been moving against vocal opposition from police, firefighters, and other city agencies when it voted to expand the hours of operation for GM Cruise and Waymo robo-taxis in San Francisco.
*Sniff Sniff*
What's that? It's the smell of dodgy lucre in brown envelopes.
Flocke Kroes
"it might take longer than anticipated to get driverless cars on our roads."
I hoped driverless cars would not be allowed on the roads before they could routinely do something safe in unusual circumstances. I anticipated them being let loose early. Clearly AI is being aimed at the wrong jobs. How about an LLM to replace a CEO? Anyone anticipate that happening this century?
vistisen
Problem is the LLM would have to be dummed down to react at the level of CEOs
about down to the level
"We must do something", "this is something", "we must do this".
"when is my next bonus paid out"?
Well forget the second accident
There is no programming in the world that can prevent a vehicle from being broadsided by a moron who runs a red light. I'm glad there were no injuries and I hope the careless driver will get what he deserves.
But a vehicle that can't handle an oncoming vehicle in the same lane ? I understand that avoidance maneuvers is a whole other set of abilities, but braking is still supposed to be on the cards, is it not ? The vehicle "initiated a braking maneuver". Nice to know. Why did it not stop entirely ? Or did it stop entirely and it's the ambulance that drove into it ? Not clear from the article.
Whatever the case, if driverless vehicles can't handle the antics of emergency vehicles - who are doing their duty as best they can - and become no better than roadblocks, then it's not 50% less that should be on the road, it's 100%, day and night, until the issue is solved.
Now I agree that, given the trouble it has been up to now to get anything near driverless actually working, this is probably a whole new load of trouble for the engineers concerned.
Still, if there is one type vehicle that should always get top priority on the road, it's emergency response vehicles.
And driverless cars should be the first to give way and clear the road for them.