A self-driving car operated by Basic Motors subsidiary Cruise was concerned in a collision with a San Francisco Fireplace Division truck Thursday night time at an intersection.
One individual, a passenger within the Cruise car, complained of a headache on the scene and was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening accidents, based on a police spokesperson.
The crash occurred shortly after 10 p.m. native time on the intersection of Polk and Turk streets.
A separate Cruise-involved crash occurred shortly after midnight this morning on the intersection of twenty sixth Avenue and Mission in San Francisco, an organization spokesman mentioned.
Each got here a couple of week after a controversial vote during which state regulators authorised Cruise’s request to develop its business service in San Francisco, regardless of considerations from metropolis authorities that, amongst different issues, the corporate’s self-driving vehicles interfered with emergency responders.
The fireplace truck was responding to an emergency on the time of the crash, in accordance Kathryn Winters, a San Francisco police division spokeswoman. Its lights, together with a forward-facing regular pink gentle, have been illuminated and its siren was energetic, she mentioned.
The Cruise car entered the intersection on a inexperienced gentle, based on an organization spokesperson.
Autos — whether or not human-driven vehicles, robotaxis, bicycles or scooters — are required to yield to emergency automobiles working in emergency mode, Winters mentioned.
Video from the scene’s aftermath confirmed an airbag deployed within the Cruise car. A firefighter will be overheard telling a police officer “it regarded prefer it lurched” in reference to the robotaxi.
An investigation is ongoing.
Cruise mentioned it had reached out to the rider and supplied assist and mentioned it will be “in contact” with metropolis officers concerning the collision.
It’s one among 4 incidents involving Cruise automobiles in San Francisco because the California Public Utilities Fee authorised the corporate’s enlargement request in a 3-1 vote Aug. 10.
Within the crash shortly after midnight this morning, Cruise mentioned its car contained no passengers and had the inexperienced gentle when it was struck by one other car working a pink, based on firm spokesman Navideh Forghani.
On Tuesday, a Cruise car drove right into a building zone and have become caught in moist cement.
Final Friday, sooner or later after the CPUC vote, as many as 10 Cruise automobiles got here to a standstill in the course of Grant Avenue. Cruise officers mentioned a close-by music pageant had precipitated wi-fi connectivity issues, ensuing within the vehicles shedding a connection to distant operations workers.
The incidents come as officers categorical concern over autonomous automobiles interfering with emergency automobiles and search a higher voice in how they’re deployed on metropolis streets.
Earlier than the CPUC vote, San Francisco Municipal Transit Company Director Jeffrey Tumlin mentioned autonomous automobiles can function with impunity as a result of they don’t seem to be subjected to the identical guidelines and rules as human-driven automobiles.
“We have now no means to implement guidelines when AVs break them,” he mentioned. “AVs exist in an entire Wild West space of the present authorized code.”