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Supporters also pointed to the potential safety benefits that come with robotaxis. AVs never get tired, distracted, drive impaired, or angry on the road, creating the potential to greatly reduce accidents on the road. Autonomous vehicles usually have more cameras on them than typical passenger vehicles.
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Two resolutions passed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) allow General Motors-backed Cruise and Google-run Waymo to operate across San Francisco 24/7 and charge passengers for rides. Though these contentious robotaxis have sharply divided San Francisco, Thursday’s vote paves the way for the city’s driverless future. Back in May, the CPUC had all but granted the expansion permits, then delayed the final vote twice amid mounting opposition from city agencies and residents. Since AVs hit the streets of San Francisco, there have been numerous instances of vehicles malfunctioning and stopping in the middle of the street — referred to as “bricking” — blocking the flow of traffic, public transit and emergency responders.
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Reached by the Washington Post after last week’s vote, Koopman wondered if the technology was really ready — or, rather, if the companies hemorrhaging money like “Brewster’s Millions” simply needed to move ahead for their own bottom lines. Well, the catch is, the last 2 percent is really tough, and this is fundamental to the issues of this industry. You can have a vehicle that is good at the easy stuff — and that is certainly an impressive achievement — but we have been there since the 1990s in some sense. It is really that last 2 percent that’s tough, because it is always something new. There is an infinite variety of weird stuff in the world, and handling it all turns out to be a lot harder than people want it to be.
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Robotaxis are one of the most tangible applications of AI, using similar technology to what underlies the viral chatbot ChatGPT. “This is going to be the only chance for CPUC to get this right,” said Mike Di Bene, a local truck driver and member of the Teamsters, one of the unions that’s asking the state to pump the brakes on self-driving vehicles, which include taxis and big-rig trucks. If the commission agrees, hundreds of self-driving taxis could soon be available for hire by the general public, all day every day. The scheduled vote by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is shaping up as a referendum on an array of issues related to technology, including the politics of artificial intelligence and the human workforce affected by the technology’s rapid development. The DMV’s order of suspension, which TechCrunch has viewed, states that Cruise withheld video footage from an ongoing investigation. The DMV was investigating Cruise following a series of incidents, specifically one on October 2 that left a pedestrian, who had been initially hit by a human-driven car, stuck under a Cruise robotaxi and then dragged for 20 feet at 7 miles per hour by the AV.
California regulators to decide the future of Cruise and Waymo - TechCrunch
California regulators to decide the future of Cruise and Waymo.
Posted: Wed, 09 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
“Let’s ask the questions now, before these companies become part of a way of life and too large, and investors have put in too much to regulate them,” she said. The CPUC also did not respond to TechCrunch’s inquiry regarding whether the agency will reinstate Cruise’s permits if and when the DMV does. In a tweet on Tuesday, Cruise denied the DMV’s claims and said it proactively shared information with the DMV, the CPUC and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), including the full video.
Waymo said it will invite “more of the over 100,000 members of the public on the waitlist” to ride in their cars over the coming weeks. Cruise representatives did not provide an updated, post-vote expansion plan by publication time. Members of the California Public Utilities Commission are appointed by the governor. A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, declined to comment on his position on self-driving technology. Both want these services to operate 24/7 — a potentially major change for San Francisco’s streets, and a potential showcase for what AI can and cannot do.
Protesters Outside Public Utilities Commission Call for Ouster of Commissioner Who Worked for Cruise - SFist
Protesters Outside Public Utilities Commission Call for Ouster of Commissioner Who Worked for Cruise.
Posted: Thu, 14 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
They don’t text at the wheel,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana wrote in a column last month in the San Francisco Chronicle. An Uber test car in autonomous mode hit and killed a woman in Arizona in 2018. The backup driver pleaded guilty last week to endangerment and was sentenced to three years of supervised probation.
CPUC votes to expand driverless car operations in San Francisco
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The CPUC is also “independently carrying out investigatory activities into recent incidents involving passenger service,” Terrie Prosper, director of news and outreach at the CPUC, told TechCrunch. With driverless car services already operating in Phoenix and San Francisco, Waymo says Los Angeles is next on its list. Jarvis Murray, for-hire transportation administrator for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), pointed out Monday a range of other risks. Waymo has begun testing its AVs in Los Angeles but will require an additional permit from the CPUC to start a commercial service there. Waymo had a slightly better go of it, but that could be because the company has fewer vehicles on San Francisco’s roads.
In a filing, NHSTA said it was interested in two different issues that had been reported to the administration that both result in the robotaxis becoming hazards for others on the road. The Public Utilities Commission still decided to approve the expansion by a 3-1 vote. Although the panel consists of five commissioners, only four voted on the proposed robotaxi expansion. Commissioner Karen Douglas was absent from Thursday’s hearing for an undisclosed reason. But some residents aren’t taking the slow advance of robotaxi coverage lying down. An activist group calling itself Safe Street Rebel put out a call on social media for people to place orange traffic cones on the hoods of any robotaxi seen wandering the streets of San Francisco, which would effectively disable it.
From January 1 to June 30, Waymo recorded 58 retrieval events and said it averages 10 minutes to retrieve bricked vehicles. Rebecca Miller, who had visual impairment, urged the commission to vote no, citing concerns about pedestrians and a need for more affordable transportation like transit. Additionally, both Cruise and Waymo possess an Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Program Permit issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). This DMV permit is a prerequisite for AV deployment and is distinct from the CPUC’s permit, which is an additional requirement for companies that provide transportation services to the public using AVs. Participants in the CPUC’s AV programs must also maintain the relevant DMV AV permit in good standing.
Thursday's commission vote simply permitted the Google-owned company to start charging for their rides, which Cruise has been doing since June last year. The CPUC did signal an intention to review California government’s spotty rules around safety data collection and address the driverless industry’s propensity to keep stats out of public view, sometimes with the help of the state’s own regulators. In 2021, after the DMV received a public records request for Waymo crash data, the agency invited the company to seek a court injunction to prevent the DMV from releasing full crash reports. Although the approval delights the industry and proponents of rapid technological innovation and economic growth, it’s provoked anxiety among automotive safety advocates and local public officials, who have little regulatory power over the vehicles. Cruise and Waymo argue that SF’s streets are unsafe and that AV technology can save lives.
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