After Firetruck Crash, California Tells Cruise to Reduce Robotaxi Fleet by 50% in San Francisco

Thursday a Cruise robotaxi drove through a green light in front of an oncoming firetruck "with its forward facing red lights and siren on, the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement to Reuters." The San Francisco Chronicle adds that the Cruise vehicle's passenger "passenger was treated on the scene and shared taken in an ambulance to a hospital, though the company said the injuries were 'non-severe.' The company added in an email to the Chronicle that the passenger was on the scene walking around and talking to emergency responders before being taken to the hospital." By Friday California's Department of Motor Vehicles said it was investigating the "concerning incidents," according to TechCrunch. But it adds that the AV-regulating agency also "called for Cruise to reduce its fleet by 50% and have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150 driverless vehicles in operation at night until the investigation is complete.Cruise told TechCrunch it is complying with the request. Cruise also issued a blog post giving the company's perspective of how and why the crash occurred. Cruise's blog post points out the firetruck was unexpectedly in the oncoming lane of traffic that night. But meanwhile, elsewhere in the city...The same night, a Cruise car collided with another vehicle at 26th and Mission streets. The company said another driverless car, which had no passengers, entered the intersection on a green light when another car ran a red light at high speed. The driverless car detected the other car and braked, according to Cruise, but the two cars still collided... The collisions came a day after city officials asked state regulators to halt their approval of robotaxi companies' unrestricted commercial expansion in the city, citing concerns about how the robotaxis' behavior impacts emergency responders. Last weekend Cruise was also criticized after "as many as 10 Cruise driverless taxis blocked two narrow streets," reports the Los Angeles Times:Human-driven cars sat stuck behind and in between the robotaxis, which might as well have been boulders: no one knew how to move them.... The cars sat motionless with parking lights flashing for 15 minutes, then woke up and moved on, witnesses said. Cruise "blamed cellphone carriers for the problem," according to the article - arguing that a music festival overloaded the cellphone network they used to communicate with their vehicles. Thanks to Slashdot reader jjslash for sharing the story.

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