San Francisco police cease self-driving automotive – and discover no one inside, video exhibits | Self-driving automobiles

A video not too long ago posted on-line exhibits what occurs when police attempt to apprehend an autonomous automobile – solely to search out no one inside.

Police in San Francisco stopped a automobile operated by Cruise, an autonomous automotive firm backed by Common Motors, in a video posted on 1 April. Officers approached the automotive, which had been driving with out headlights, solely to search out it was empty.

“Ain’t no one in it – that is loopy,” a bystander might be heard saying within the video. The automotive then speeds away to the opposite facet of the intersection, leaving the police behind.

The video, which has since circulated extensively on social media, prompted inevitable jokes. “Welcome to the longer term,” quipped one Twitter consumer.

Cruise is working to deploy its autonomous driving know-how for ride-hailing functions, transporting riders across the metropolis and not using a driver. It has been testing its automobiles with a backup driver within the entrance seat since 2015, but it surely began permitting customers to hail driverless automobiles in San Francisco in November 2021.

The corporate stated in a tweet that the automobile had behaved as anticipated by transferring to a safer location on the opposite facet of the intersection the place police have been capable of deal with their issues.

“Our AV yielded to the police automobile, then pulled over to the closest protected location, as supposed. 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 automobile “didn’t have its headlights on due to a human error, which was the explanation the SFPD approached it, and now we have 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 automobile is pulled over. The SFPD didn’t instantly reply to request for remark concerning the incident or about its insurance policies for driverless automobiles.

The viral video underscores the bumps within the highway as corporations race to place totally autonomous automobiles on streets.

The Cruise video comes simply weeks after Waymo, one other autonomous automotive firm, introduced it might deploy driverless automobiles in San Francisco. Waymo has been engaged on autonomous driving know-how for greater than a decade and operating totally driverless rides in Arizona for greater than a 12 months.

However driverless automotive glitches have made headlines previously, together with a Waymo automobile that grew to become caught at an intersection and required rescue.

Waymo stated in March it might permit 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 automotive firm, additionally has a allow for driverless automobiles in San Francisco, however is utilizing it for self-driving supply providers reasonably than passenger rides. It’s already making driverless deliveries in Mountain View, California.

Different driverless automotive companies are engaged on their very own know-how, together with Elon Musk’s digital automotive firm Tesla and Aurora Innovation, an organization primarily based in Pittsburgh.