A couple of weeks ago , as San Francisco emergency responders attempted to draw out away from a vista where a man had been seriously injured , a pair of Cruise robotaxis allegedly footle in the ambulance ’s path , not understanding that they were required to get out of the way . The man died not long afterward . It did n’t take long for the autonomous vehicles to be blame for the valet ’s death .
tensity between SF locals and the robotaxi universe have been notablyhighsince a state - tier decision several weeks backunleashedhundreds of the automated vehicles onto Bay Area road . This episode , in which the cars had obstruct an parking brake vehicle — with fatal results — seemed , at the fourth dimension , to confirmresidents ’ bad reverence about the vehicle . Worse still , a much - advertize public safetyreportshowed that emergency responders tie to the incident had specifically blame Cruise ’s cars for their slowed response . Aflurry of press storiesblaming the robotaxis for the incident postdate .
It ’s now become patent , however , that the tale is more complicated than that . For one thing , city officials have now clarified — weeks by and by — that Cruise was specifically not at fault for the human race ’s decease . For another affair , it ’s been uncover that the man was actually fatally struckby a city passenger vehicle , intend that , while emergency responders partly blamed the ego - driving auto for the deadly outcome , a human - operated city vehicle wound the dupe in the first place .
Photo: Phil Pasquini (Shutterstock)
How the crash actually happened
This workweek , the San Francisco Standardreportedthat the victim in doubt , 69 - class - old Sammy Davis , was a homeless piece who , on August 14th , fall to the solid ground behind a city jitney and was after fall upon and seriously injured . Neither the charabanc driver nor passengers appeared to notice that Davis had been struck . Not long after the incident , parking brake responders showed up and , after loading the man into their ambulance , had their unfortunate showdown with Cruise ’s vehicles . In an initial Fire Departmentreportthat wasacquired by Forbesvia a public info request , emergency responders were clearly reek about the role that the self - drive cars had playact in the incident . The memo take :
“ The patient role was packaged for transport with life - threatening injuries , but we were unable to go forth the scene initially due to the Cruise vehicle not moving , ” the report says . “ This holdup , no matter how minimum , contributed to a misfortunate patient upshot … The fact that Cruise self-directed vehicle cover to block immersion and egress to critical 911 calls is unacceptable . ”
Cruise antecedently denied that its fomite had anything to do with Davis ’s death , claiming that only 90 seconds go by between the clock time when he was put on a stretcher and when the man left the scene .
This week , officials releaseda statementthat elucidate that Cruise had not formally been blame for Davis ’s death . “ The San Francisco Fire Chief has not assign this footer death to Cruise AVs , ” a joint argument by the Fire Chief and the metropolis ’s Municipal Transportation Agency reads . The instruction go bad on to partly blame insistence reports which relied “ on an internal report from an SFFD staff member on the scene ” for the perception that Cruise was to blame for the man ’s death . “ The urban center sends our deepest condolences to [ the ] family and friend of the dupe , ” the affirmation concludes .
In response to the update from metropolis functionary , Cruise provided Gizmodo with the undermentioned statement : “ Nothing lessens the tragedy of a lose life , but we appreciate the Fire Chief ’s clarification that they have not attributed this to Cruise . We look forward to continued and increase coaction with SFFD on our shared finish of route safety . ”
San Francisco’s Robotaxi Infestation
Whether Cruise was at fault for this special incident or not , it seems exculpated that San Francisco is in for some troubled times , as the automated driving manufacture uses the city as a giant examination ground for its robotaxi experimentation . Under such circumstances , it only stands to rationality that local anesthetic would feel roiled , if not outright alarmed . More relevantly , the tension between the city ’s public base hit officials and the robotaxi diligence do n’t really seem like they ’re operate away anytime shortly . metropolis official are notably suspicious of a new , arguably observational technology that has the potential to clog dealings and cause serious chance event . Only time will secern whether that wariness is absolve or not .
UPDATE : This story to begin with stated that the public condom report detailing the incident affect Cruise ’s vehicles had been leaked to Forbes . The document were actually acquired via a public information request . We rue the computer error .
accidentForbesRobotaxiRobotics
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