Remember those Cruise robotaxis that recently became popular out in California? The startup's driverless cars were going to be the future of taxi cabs! They even received a nice special permit from the state of California in order to test out their vehicles on the city streets.
Yeah... well that all changed earlier this month when one of these robotaxis ran into a woman on the streets of San Francisco and ended up dragging her 20 feet — yes, 20 feet. True story.
They need to "protect public safety" because these driverless cars don't know how to stop after they've run over someone!
Details:
In the incident this month, the human driver of another vehicle struck a pedestrian in San Francisco at night, tossing the pedestrian into the path of a Cruise self-driving car, which then drove over her, San Francisco police said. Police said at the time that they were investigating the factors that led to the collision, and they did not immediately say who they believed was at fault.
I mean, to be fair to the driverless car, this is a rare occurrence. How often is a civilian hit and flung right in front of you on the road? I can see how that might have been overlooked during programming.
AND she was jaywalking.
But...
The car dragged that woman 20 feet!
They called it a hit-and-run, too! Meaning that not only did the robo-car hit a woman, it tried to get away with it!
And now the startup has lost its special self-driving permit in California.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles said Tuesday that it was immediately suspending the permits that allowed the tech startup Cruise to operate driverless cars, halting the operations of one of the two companies that have been operating commercial robotaxi fleets in the state.
The DMV said that the suspension would take effect immediately and that it was acting to protect public safety. Cruise vehicles have been involved in a series of incidents that sparked criticism from elected officials and members of the public, especially in San Francisco.
As with all new technologies, these kinks need to be worked out.
Maybe they should have spent more time working this bug out in the lab before setting potential killer cars loose on the street.
For the sake of public safety, yes, California needed to get these off the road.
We'll see if Cruise can make a comeback here over the next few months and get that permit back.
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