A Waymo driverless taxi in San Francisco caused traffic congestion when it stopped on a street for several minutes due to a partially closed back door. Both Cruise and Waymo are making progress towards gaining full access to San Francisco’s roads. However, concerns remain among residents who believe that the driverless cars, which have caused numerous traffic incidents since their initial launch, are not yet ready for unrestricted use. A meeting held by the California Public Utilities Commission to discuss safety issues with autonomous vehicles attracted over 200 listeners, with many Bay Area residents expressing their concerns and describing the cars as menacing and a threat to drivers and pedestrians. Cruise was authorized to deploy 30 autonomous vehicles for paying passengers in designated areas of the city in June 2022, while Waymo cars started operating on the streets in November 2022. Despite these developments, some city officials have strongly protested, claiming that Cruise’s autonomous vehicles have caused so many traffic violations that they would disqualify any teenager from obtaining a driver’s license. There have also been reports of autonomous vehicles interfering with firefighters on the job, obstructing Muni routes, and unexpectedly stopping in the middle of the street. As a result, activists have resorted to placing orange traffic cones on the vehicles’ hoods as a last-ditch effort to disable them. A recent presentation at the CPUC meeting revealed that there have been nearly 600 reported traffic incidents involving autonomous vehicles, with suspicions that many more have gone unnoticed. The lack of disclosure from Cruise and Waymo regarding the number of times their vehicles have unexpectedly stopped and interfered with first responders has further deepened the distrust. The chief of the San Francisco Fire Department stated that the autonomous vehicles have intruded on emergency scenes in an unsafe and unpredictable manner multiple times, putting personnel at risk. The fire department has logged about 50 incidents involving autonomous vehicles in 2023 alone, and the number is increasing. Concerns have been raised about the potential consequences of delays caused by autonomous vehicles at emergency scenes, as fires can double in size within a minute. City officials and residents are urging autonomous vehicles to demonstrate that they can operate safely on the streets and to provide data to support their claims of improvement. Public comments submitted to the CPUC also reveal personal experiences with autonomous vehicles, including incidents of them ignoring stop signs and speeding near children. Some residents believe that San Francisco is being treated as a test subject by tech companies and are tired of being treated as such. Cruise and Waymo continue their efforts to win over the public, but residents and officials remain unconvinced that autonomous vehicles will benefit San Francisco. The CPUC will vote on expanding the use of autonomous vehicles in the city on August 10th.
California Residents Plead for an End to Cruise and Waymo Domination in San Francisco
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