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Also, if we are not the one having to drive, we can do things like watch live sports or Netflix or whatever and are more willing to accept growing traffic. I have a hard time determining what is better — there are pros and cons to the robotaxis of 2023, and there are pros and cons to the broader vision of a widespread robotaxi revolution. The firm behind some of Austin’s ever-present autonomous vehicles is under investigation by federal officials after pedestrians were hit by self-driving cars in San Francisco.
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Cruise Robotaxi Fleet Causes Gridlock On Austin Street - InsideEVs
Cruise Robotaxi Fleet Causes Gridlock On Austin Street.
Posted: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
At least four driverless car companies are testing vehicles in Austin. Cruise, which is mostly owned by General Motors, was the only one without humans behind the wheel, city staff said. Waymo, Volkswagen's ADMT and AV Ride have 25, 10 and 4 vehicles in Austin, respectively, all with test drivers. The actual cause of the jam remains unknown, though it's not uncommon for Cruise vehicles to become stuck and require human intervention—also known as a Vehicle Recovery Event. The individual who posted the photos and videos said they observed the Cruise workers trying to operate the cars via remote control to remediate the situation.
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After months of debate and even a delayed vote by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), they got approval to run their robotaxis commercially 24/7 in San Francisco. As Cruise's fleet has expanded in Austin, formal and informal complaints — along with viral videos of cars stalling out or veering into lanes — have followed suit. The last thing I want to see is someone getting hit by a car, whether a pedestrian or cyclist, and get injured,” said Qadri. Despite these challenges, companies like Cruise have made remarkable strides in expanding their fleets beyond their Silicon Valley origins, with Austin, Texas, being one of their recent ventures. However, this expansion has not been without its teething problems, as evidenced by the recent traffic snarl in Austin.
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A host of autonomous prototypes deployed by Cruise in Austin, Texas have been captured on film stuck in the middle of a street in what looks like some kind of twisted, dystopian traffic jam. Imagine using a ride-hailing app to get a lift in Central Austin and seeing a white car with black and red accents pull up. Suddenly, the steering wheel begins moving on its own, and the car takes off. “You’re taught, when you’re riding a bike that you have to make eye contact with the driver, or when you’re crossing the street, you have to make eye contact with the driver at every stop sign intersection. So it’s kind of hard to predict what they’re going to do at an intersection,” said Qadri. The fact that they're EVs has nothing to do with how or why they caused a traffic jam.
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So much so that the officials who granted them seemingly unfettered access to the city have reined in the driverless cars to avoid further public outcry, at least for the time being. There was plenty of support, too — people who were disabled or distrustful of human drivers or didn’t want to appear to be burying their heads in the sand when new technology becomes available. After all, disruption and inconvenience tend to go hand in hand, said Raj Rajkumar, a robotics professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Think of the advent of indoor plumbing or the installation of natural gas lines or building roads and highways. AUSTIN (KXAN) — On a busy Saturday night near the University of Texas at Austin campus, a UT student caught a unique traffic jam on camera — at least 20 Cruise driverless cars at San Gabriel and 23rd streets.
Failing that, the city could sue the commission, which is under the authority of Governor Gavin Newsom. As self-driving technology continues to evolve, striking the right balance between innovation and public safety remains a paramount challenge for companies like Cruise and the communities they serve. Cruise has also been the subject of a federal probe from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration examining if the self-driving vehicles are using appropriate precautions around pedestrians. “Most of the folks reaching out to us were in downtown, UT,” he said. “Everything from ‘I was a pedestrian, cyclist or in a car myself and a Cruise car almost hit me,’ to ‘a Cruise car has stopped in the middle of an intersection,’ or ‘several cars have stopped.' There was a fear." Cruise cars that are being operated by humans will still be on the roads.
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The decision came two days after the California Department of Motor Vehicles declared Cruise's vehicles unsafe and yanked the the company's driverless testing permits. California also prevents cities from regulating self-driving cars. The company said it was suspending self-driving car operations nationwide to "reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust." Those who witnessed the traffic jam in Austin report that various Cruise workers attempted to clear the road by operating the vehicles remotely. A spokesperson told The Drive that the issue may have been caused by heavy foot and vehicle traffic.
Cruise found its robotaxi fleet in a (literal) jam in Austin
This isn't the first time that Cruise vehicles have drawn the ire of untrusting residents. Back in January, a driverless car was observed turning into a bike lane. And during another incident, cars were observed treating small residential neighborhoods as throughways. While legal, it caused an unnecessary nuisance to residents who told KXAN that they'd seen as many as 25 cars in a 20-minute span. Robotaxis haven't enjoyed the best public image over the past year. From unmanned traffic jams to protestors condoning straight-up vandalism against cars, both Cruise and Waymo have had a rough start in San Francisco.
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However, he said, when a Cruise car does stop, there are multiple ways of starting it back up. Stone compares this to testing robots in the hallways of UT's engineering buildings. Robots will wheel around for hours with a student following, making note of any disruptions or mistakes the robots run into.
"At the end of the day, we're not perfect," said Michael Staples, Cruise's General Manager for the Austin region, to KXAN. "There will be situations where the vehicle will experience something where it's uncertain of what to do next. So when it doesn't know what to do, it will default to its safest action, which is pulling over."
This is not the first time that Cruise vehicles have caused a traffic jam like this. Last month, approximately 10 vehicles locked traffic on Vallejo Street in San Francisco. The most famous incident of Cruise vehicles randomly gathered together occurred in July last year when over a dozen prototypes stopped near an intersection, also in San Francisco. Cruise began testing the cars in San Francisco in 2020 and is now offering a ride-hailing service there.
The sight of a robot traffic jam was unfortunately all too familiar in San Francisco. For months, city officials have complained about blocked roads, obstructed emergency response vehicles, and other bizarre behavior by these driverless cars. A Waymo vehicle ran over and killed a small dog — inspiring a street painting memorializing the martyred canine. And as more vehicles are deployed and the companies begin commercializing the service, more obstructions are to be expected. The companies could do themselves a big favor by doing more outreach. Obstructing emergency vehicles, in particular, is unlikely to help win over the hearts and minds of the residents you’re hoping will become new customers, let alone not piss off the populace you’re trying to serve.
All that’s left for cities to do is make minor infrastructure decisions, help direct traffic — and not much else. The California-based autonomous vehicle company is temporarily ramping down all operations of its vehicles on public roads, including vehicles that had human drivers supervising. Dozens of Cruise vehicles stopped in a street in West Campus and blocked traffic. Videos shared on social media show the fully autonomous vehicles lining the street late at night, some with their hazard lights flashing and others trying to maneuver around each other. Some of the vehicles were even positioned on the wrong side of the road. On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to let self-driving cars, including Cruise, expand their services within the city.
Opponents are not likely to take these major changes lying down. In the weeks leading up to the CPUC vote, several videos went viral of people placing orange cones on the hoods of the vehicles, effectively disabling them. They called it the “Week of Cone,” and it was meant to demonstrate how easy it was to confuse these supposedly high-tech vehicles.
City council members are powerless, and the Austin Transportation and Public Works Department can't really do anything to stop Cruise from operating on its streets. Earlier this month, the department issued a memo noting that "Texas cities cannot regulate autonomous vehicles" as their authority is preempted by state law. It’s far from the end,” Aaron Peskin, president of the city’s Board of Supervisors, told The San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday. “We need to get it right and we are trying to partner with Cruise and Waymo, which hasn’t been real smooth. They are very secretive.” Peskin said the city documented 55 incidents involving driverless cars interfering with first responders so far this year.
A video posted by a Reddit user vividly portrays the scene—a swarm of Cruise’s robotaxis creating a gridlock on a narrow Austin street. According to Cruise, the traffic debacle unfolded because their fleet found itself in an area with high demand and heavy pedestrian and passenger vehicle traffic. One of their autonomous vehicles got ensnared at an intersection during a turn, compounding the traffic chaos. Cruise said it was reevaluating its operations and trying to earn public trust after it became the subject of a federal investigation for multiple incidents involving pedestrians in San Francisco. The robotaxi dilemma is also shining a light on the divided way we regulate cars in the US. The federal government creates vehicle safety rules, leaving the states to license drivers, register vehicles, and enforce the rules of the road.
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