I would not ever use a driverless vehicle ride. Besides taking away a job from a person, they are not necessary. We have taxis, Ubers, Lyfts, etc. I can’t understand why on earth we would need these vehicles. I guess the parent companies needed a way to make more money.

This is a deeper problem. It seems obvious the unpredictable nature of emergency response teams makes programming the cars to understand the situation very difficult. I had a job directing traffic for a venue and when paramedics would arrive, I’d try to get them to park in the best place possible for continuously flow but, yeah, that never happened. They were there to save people, not worry about blocking parked cars. But as one gets out of the city – where stop signs and traffic lights at nearly every corner make for easy programming – understanding even more unique situations will be necessary. I’m betting the cars ultimately wind up being useful in limited areas only.

Not sure if the incident I reported to ML reporter on Jan 13th made it into this data. Would be happy to resent video/

In reply to Mike.

They are still hyping how they can fix all of our problems with their clever little incel brains and coding, huh?

Can’t wait to see the map of people hurt or killed by human drivers during this period. That’s coming next, right? right?

In reply to Joe Eskenazi.

Thanks for the info. I guess. I missed that. Here is a question re: records kept by SF officials and the corporate data banks that reside with the AVs. Has anyone compared incident reports you published taken by SF authorities with those in the corporate database? Do they agree on the facts of each incident? If they do, we can be someone reassured. If they do not, there is a huge problem that needs to be addressed.

Do these cars cause more or less human injuries and deaths than human-driven vehicles – proportionally speaking. If we knew that number, there would be a clearer picture of whether they should be allowed to proceed.

Cruise and Waymo decision-makers now seem to be acting as if letting their robotaxis interfere with police and/or fire emergencies is simply the cost of doing business. Will it take somebody suing Cruise or Waymo for a lot of money for losing a house or a loved one to fire services delayed by their robocrap vehicles to get them to change their cavalier ways?

Well, this may all be a fate accompli if the autonomous car companies have paid off the right people. They even have former mayor Willie Brown on the payroll. The opinions of everyday San Franciscans do not matter if the right people in La City Familia are taken care of. Article on Willie Brown’s involvement with automated car companies: https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/willie-brown-statement-cruise-advisor-18283909.php

In reply to Joe Eskenazi.

I think it’s notable that the passengers just get out and walk away during these encounters.

Imagine for a moment a hypothetical in which these autonomous vehicles were in widespread use during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Imagine thousands of empty cars clogging the roadways throughout the Bay Area, abandoned by their fares.

How is it that these autonomous cars do not have some kind of safety that can be activated easily or even automatically, by emergency responders? It’s so simple and should have been one of the first things they put together before sending them out onto the public streets.

Thank you to ML for pushing this issue. Many people in the autonomous vehicle industry are hyping these vehicles as the answer to a lot of safety and congestion problems. I’m pretty skeptical of those claims. Regardless, it is clear that there are many troubling flaws with the technology that have yet to be sorted out. Also troubling is the less than transparent manner in which they have been approved to operate in the city and are being introduced to city streets.

In reply to sebraleaves.

Sir or madam — 

If you go through the actual reports, there are passengers mentioned and they tend to get out and walk away. Neither the passengers nor the firefighters can take control of the cars on their own initiative.

JE

In all of these cases no mention is made of any humans on board as passengers. How would a passenger deal with being driven around in a recalcitrant robotaxi? Would the passenger be able to take over the car and drive it? Get out of the car? Why not just allow the passenger ride in the drivers seat and take control of the car when control is needed?