On Friday night time, as many as 10 Cruise driverless robotaxis ended up stopping in San Francisco’s North Seashore. The incident induced visitors to again up, and it left skeptics questioning the town’s current resolution to permit driverless robotaxis to function 24/7 in San Francisco.
Social media posts concerning the incident depicted a number of Cruise robotaxis stopped in the course of Grant Avenue. The robotaxis had their hazards engaged, they usually have been blocking different autos from transferring.
Responding to the incident, Cruise acknowledged that the difficulty was the results of “wi-fi connectivity points,” which immobilized the driverless robotaxis. Apparently sufficient, San Francisco police confirmed that the cell connectivity points skilled by the robotaxis have been brought on by the massive variety of folks on the Exterior Lands music competition.
Cruise, for its half, famous that it was investigating the incident. The corporate additionally apologized to those that have been affected. “We’re actively investigating and dealing on options to forestall this from taking place once more and apologize to these impacted,” Cruise famous in an announcement.
Primarily based on a textual content message change between San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin and a Cruise authorities affairs supervisor, which was reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, the mobile connection points impacted the corporate’s functionality to remotely redirect the robotaxis. Peskin reportedly famous that round 10 vehicles got here to a halt on the intersection.
As a part of Cruise’s efforts to keep away from the identical incident from taking place sooner or later, Peskin famous that the robotaxi operator is contemplating the creation of its personal cellphone community only for its San Francisco operations. Such an initiative would doubtless be useful, as Cruise would doubtless be ramping its operations within the metropolis within the close to future.
Apparently sufficient, the incident in San Francisco’s North Seashore occurred only a day after the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) voted to elevate all restrictions for Cruise and Waymo’s full commercialization in San Francisco.
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