Totally driverless automobiles nonetheless appear about as legendary as unicorns in a lot of the world, however not in San Francisco the place unmanned Cruise and Waymo robotaxis are already in service. Sadly, those self same automobiles have been turned into unicorns by a protest group that’s discovered a easy approach to immobilize them.

A bunch calling itself Secure Avenue Insurgent has found that putting a site visitors cone on the hood of a robotaxi will disable it, and has posted the proof to social media to show the strategy and encourage different budding protestors to do the identical. 

The group objects to the deployment of robotaxis, which have hit the headlines a number of instances for inflicting multi-car snarl-ups, crashed into buses and been left stranded by fog. And Secure Avenue Insurgent is simply going to get angrier if the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) grants operators freedom to increase the scope of their operations at an upcoming listening to.

Associated: Self-Driving Automobiles Are Like Surveillance Cameras On Wheels For Police

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Nevertheless, a fast take a look at Secure Avenue Insurgent’s web site makes it clear that its beef isn’t solely with robotaxis and autonomous automobiles, however automobiles interval.

“We combat for car-free areas, transit fairness, and the top of automotive dominance. Folks, group, and park area should be prioritized over polluting, harmful & murderous automobiles,” it reads.

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“The final half-century has been a failed experiment with automotive dominance. They bankrupt our cities, destroy our surroundings, and pressure working folks to sacrifice an unacceptable quantity of their earnings to pay for primary transpiration. It’s time to finish automotive dependence and rethink our streets round public transit, strolling and bikes.”

The robotaxi corporations are predictably irritated by the group’s reactions.

“Not solely is that this understanding of how AVs function incorrect, however that is vandalism and encourages unsafe and disrespectful habits on our roadways,” Waymo stated in an announcement to The Drive and Highway & Observe.

“We’ll notify regulation enforcement of any undesirable or unsafe interference of our automobiles on public roadways.”

@safestreetrebel

Welcome to Week of Cone On Thurs 7/13, the CPUC will vote to develop AVs in SF. Cruise & Waymo promise they’ll scale back site visitors & collisions, however we all know that’s not true. They block busses & emergency automobiles, create extra site visitors, and are a surveillance nightmare. However there’s hope We are able to combat again. –The Enjoyable manner: All you want is a cone and an empty AV. Gently place the cone on the hood- you simply created a unicorn & momentary site visitors calming! – The Accountable way- Tune into Thursday’s CPUC assembly at 11am & give public remark. Information: tinyurl.com/WeekOfCone/ AVs are hella problematic. They’re nonetheless automobiles and there’s no sustainable approach to transfer 2 tons of steel/individual. require too many mining sources. Tire put on is the biggest contributor to particulate air pollution and kills very important ecosystems. There’s additionally no accountability after they block buses or first responders, and in contrast to human drivers can’t get ticketed for transferring violations. They usually refuse to share knowledge with the general public about incidents- forcing town to scrape this dumb web site to get an estimate. Cruise and Waymo don’t deserve our belief. Why undergo all this once we can simply fund & develop public transit and paratransit like different cities? These automobiles are recording everybody with out our consent- Cruise provides SFPD digital camera footage. Lives are saved once we take away the automotive, not simply the motive force. The lengths VCs and the auto trade will go to protect & develop automotive dominance are shameless & unacceptable. So be a part of us – take a stand and cone an AV. And you should definitely give public touch upon Thursday 7/13 at 11am. Assembly particulars in bio Oh and you should definitely ship us your Coning Content material #waroncars #bancars #autononomouscars #selfdriving #cone #tacticalurbanism #directaction #walkablecities

♬ Sunsets (feat. Olivia Lunny) – Nurko