Unmanned vehicles crushing passers-by cannot stop California from pushing for autonomous driving
This week, a recent traffic accident involving driverless cars in San Francisco drew attention.
A pedestrian was hit by an ordinary car, thrown in front of a Cruise self-driving taxi, ran over, and trapped under the car for several minutes until firefighters rescued him and took him to the hospital, in critical condition.
The seriousness of this incident has once again thrown the commercial safety of unmanned vehicles to the cusp.
After the accident was restored, the human driver escaped, and the unmanned car fell into the storm again
The incident occurred at 9:30 p.m. local time on Monday at a busy intersection in downtown San Francisco.
In the hustle and bustle of people, a GM-owned Cruise self-driving taxi and another ordinary vehicle stopped side by side at a red light. When the traffic light turns green, both cars start moving.
A vehicle driven by a human driver in the left lane tried to accelerate through the intersection, when an adult female pedestrian entered the road from the left. According to witnesses and video recorded by Cruise's internal camera, she was first hit by an ordinary vehicle, flew over its front hood, fell on the roof of the car, then fell down the right side, and finally was thrown into the street and landed in the lane where the driverless vehicle was moving.
The unmanned vehicle failed to dodge in time and pressed towards the pedestrian. At the same time, something was detected under the rear axle, and immediately emergency braked and turned on the hazard indicator, which also caused the pedestrian to be unfortunately trapped under the car.
Then the San Francisco Police Department and firefighters arrived at the scene, rescued the pedestrian from under the car with a life jaw and took him to the hospital. According to the fire department, the woman was "in critical condition with multiple traumatic injuries" at the time.
Accident rescue scene, image from San Francisco Fire Department
At the time of the impact, there were no passengers in the unmanned taxi. Cruise immediately remotely disabled the vehicle, stopped where it was and cooperated with the police investigation with the operator who arrived. The driver who caused the first impact fled the scene by car.
A spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement that another non-self-driving car should have been the original cause of the accident, and that clues to the escape driver are being solicited from the whole society.
Cruise quickly responded in a post on social media platform X, retracing the entire incident and writing: "Cruise immediately after capturing the pedestrian image actively braked to reduce the impact of the collision, and then stayed in place in accordance with the police request to cooperate with the investigation", "Our most sincere concern and concern is the health of the injured, and Cruise is actively working with the police to help identify who the responsible driver is." ”
Cruise's response to this event, image from X
Accidents are frequent, and potential safety hazards cause public concern
In fact, this is not the first traffic incident that has put unmanned vehicles in dispute.
On August 10, after a six-hour hearing, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted 3-1 to approve Waymo and Cruise, two self-driving car companies, to operate driverless taxi services around the clock in downtown San Francisco without safety personnel, marking the first time Robotaxi has received a formal commercial license in the United States.
On the second night after getting the license, as many as ten Cruise cars suddenly turned off on Vallejo Street, North Beach, San Francisco, due to wireless connection problems, causing traffic congestion for at least 15 minutes.
Some witnesses wrote on social networks: "Cars driven by people are stuck behind unmanned vehicles, they are motionless like boulders, no one knows how to move them." ”
A photo of the Cruise traffic jam provided to NBC by an eyewitness on the night of August 11, copyright belongs to the original author
On August 15, a Cruise driverless taxi stumbled into the construction paving site, and the front wheels got stuck in dry concrete and could not be moved.
Just three days later, a Cruise Robotaxi carrying passengers collided with a fire truck that was rushing to the scene of the fire, causing the passengers to be taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Cruise said the taxi entered the intersection when the green light came on, but did not give way in time to the fire truck with the lights and sirens, and although "the danger of collision was indeed detected and braking measures were activated to reduce the speed of the vehicle, it was ultimately unable to avoid the collision."
Image from FOX
The incident also directly triggered the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to order Cruise to immediately reduce the number of its fleet by 50%, and until the bureau completes its investigation, no more than 50 driverless vehicles will operate during the day and no more than 150 vehicles at night.
A netizen posted on X, saying that a Cruise unmanned car driving in front of him suddenly braked sharply when it was about to turn left, almost causing danger. The copyright belongs to the original author
Frequent safety accidents and various uncertainties have also caused many local people to express concern about the commercial operation of driverless taxis, especially in emergency situations, whether unmanned vehicles can accurately identify and respond to the surrounding environment and make correct judgments.
Opponents staged marches to protest the expansion of self-driving vehicles. There's even a group called Safe Street Rebel that specifically opposes driverless taxis, encouraging everyone to place a simple orange cone on the hood of an empty Robotaxi to disrupt the vehicle's positioning system and paralyze it. When the information went viral, Cruise and Waymo solemnly said that they would call the police if they found out.
A conical body placed by opponents on a Waymo self-driving car, image by San Francisco Chronicle
From research and development to the road, the road to commercial use of unmanned vehicles has gone for more than ten years
Unmanned vehicle operations face many challenges, and this commercial road is not easy.
Currently, driverless taxis on San Francisco roads come from two industry leaders: Waymo, owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, and Cruise, owned by General Motors. From technology research and development, continuous iteration, experiencing capital winter, burning money operation, to adjusting testing, and finally commercialization, the two have been on the autonomous driving track for more than ten years.
Waymo began as Google's internal X lab self-driving project in 2009, and was spun off and rebranded in 2016 due to architectural changes, named after "a new approach in mobility."
Image courtesy of Waymo
In October 2017, Waymo began conducting driving tests without safety officers on public roads in Arizona. In the following years, it continued to advance the technology, including developing low-cost sensors and cameras, and switching to self-produced lidar, which reduced costs by nearly 90%. Waymo applies these technologies to a variety of vehicles, including the Prius, Audi, and Lexus, while also working with Lyft on pilot projects and product development.
From March to May 2020, Waymo announced $2.5 billion and $750 million in financing, including Silver Lake, Canada's Pension Plan Investment Board, Mubadala Investment, as well as parts giant Magna, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Google parent company Alphabet.
In July 2020, the company announced an exclusive partnership with automaker Volvo to integrate Waymo technology into Volvo's van service.
In 2021, Waymo raised another $2.5 billion. Consumer testing programs were then launched for San Francisco and Phoenix, Arizona residents. The CPUC allows it to operate on limited operating hours, speeds, and road sections with a safe driver in the vehicle, and in foggy and rainy weather conditions.
On December 13, 2022, Waymo applied to California for a final permit to fully operate fully autonomous taxis without the need for safety officers, and was finally approved in August this year.
Founded in San Francisco in 2013, Cruise initially focused on developing direct-to-consumer kits for retrofitting vehicles with limited autonomous driving features. Since 2015, Cruise has changed its strategy and started developing driverless cars. After being successfully incubated by YC, it was acquired by General Motors in 2016. At present, it has obtained more than 6 billion US dollars of financing from SoftBank, Microsoft, General Motors, Honda, etc., with a valuation of 30 billion US dollars.
Image from Cruise
In June 2022, Cruise received California's first driverless license permit, allowing it to operate under limited conditions and charge passengers for services. In August this year, together with Waymo, it was allowed to officially operate in downtown San Francisco around the clock. After approval, Cruise said it operated about 300 vehicles at night and about 100 during the day in San Francisco; Waymo announced that it has a total of 250 robo-taxis in operation.
The voices of the people are different, which side is on this time?
In response to the traffic accidents involved in this Cruise, there are also many voices supporting unmanned vehicles. Many people think that it is actually an extreme case: a human driver first hits a pedestrian and flees, resulting in self-driving taxis forced to get involved.
After watching the surveillance video captured by Cruise, many netizens said that the unmanned car is not the initial fault, but the uncertainty and danger factor of human drivers are higher. Although it is true that driverless cars stopped on pedestrians because they did not have time to brake, if every car was equipped with safety performance with artificial intelligence technology, this tragedy may not happen at all, "which is why we need more unmanned cars."
Still, the incident comes at a critical time: Cruise is trying to expand driverless taxi operations in San Francisco and is preparing to begin testing and eventually charging in more than a dozen U.S. cities. We do not yet know if this setback will affect its market expansion plans. San Francisco is densely populated, the terrain is steep and complex, as a test field for the commercial operation of unmanned vehicles, it has reference significance for the whole United States and even the world.
As of now, the pedestrian is still in hospital and is still in danger, and we pray for the injured.
What do you think about this incident, whether you think driverless taxis are safe, and what are the development prospects?