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A video just lately posted on-line reveals what occurs when police attempt to apprehend an autonomous car – solely to search out no person inside.
Police in San Francisco stopped a car operated by Cruise, an autonomous automobile firm backed by Basic Motors, in a video posted on 1 April. Officers approached the automobile, which had been driving with out headlights, solely to search out it was empty.
“Ain’t no person in it – that is loopy,” a bystander may be heard saying within the video. The automobile then speeds away to the opposite aspect of the intersection, leaving the police behind.
The video, which has since circulated extensively on social media, prompted inevitable jokes. “Welcome to the long run,” quipped one Twitter consumer.
Cruise is working to deploy its autonomous driving know-how for ride-hailing functions, transporting riders across the metropolis with no driver. It has been testing its autos with a backup driver within the entrance seat since 2015, however it began permitting customers to hail driverless automobiles in San Francisco in November 2021.
The corporate stated in a tweet that the car had behaved as anticipated by shifting to a safer location on the opposite aspect of the intersection the place police had been capable of handle their issues.
“Our AV yielded to the police car, then pulled over to the closest secure location, as meant. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no quotation was issued,” Cruise stated on its company Twitter account.
A Cruise spokeswoman, Tiffany Testo, informed the Guardian that the car “didn’t have its headlights on due to a human error, which was the rationale the SFPD approached it, and we have now fastened the difficulty that led to this”. She added that the corporate supplied a telephone quantity for police to name with questions any time a car is pulled over. The SFPD didn’t instantly reply to request for remark in regards to the incident or about its insurance policies for driverless autos.
The viral video underscores the bumps within the highway as firms race to place totally autonomous autos on streets.
The Cruise video comes simply weeks after Waymo, one other autonomous automobile firm, introduced it could deploy driverless autos in San Francisco. Waymo has been engaged on autonomous driving know-how for greater than a decade and working totally driverless rides in Arizona for greater than a yr.
However driverless automobile glitches have made headlines up to now, together with a Waymo car that grew to become caught at an intersection and required rescue.
Waymo stated in March it could enable passengers in its driverless automobiles on a trial foundation. To partake, riders should apply for a waitlist and signal non-disclosure agreements to get early entry.
Nuro, one other autonomous automobile firm, additionally has a allow for driverless autos in San Francisco, however is utilizing it for self-driving supply companies slightly than passenger rides. It’s already making driverless deliveries in Mountain View, California.
Different driverless automobile corporations are engaged on their very own know-how, together with Elon Musk’s digital automobile firm Tesla and Aurora Innovation, an organization based mostly in Pittsburgh.
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