After two accidents involving pedestrians in San Francisco, the robotaxi company Cruise came into the attention of the US transport authority.
The NHTSA has initiated a preliminary investigation that will, among other things, clarify whether the vehicles, some of which are completely driverless, drive too close to people.
In an accident at the beginning of October, a woman got stuck under a Cruise robotaxi and had to be freed by rescue workers. According to the accident report, the pedestrian was initially hit by another vehicle with a human behind the wheel and thrown in front of the self-driving car. The self-driving car braked immediately – but was no longer able to prevent the collision.
The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) referred to another incident. According to Tuesday’s documents, a cruise robotaxi drove to a traffic light intersection at the end of August with the green light on – and at the same time a pedestrian stepped in front of the vehicle. The software tried to evade and brake. However, the car still hit the pedestrian at a speed of around two kilometers per hour.
San Francisco is currently a unique test case for self-driving taxis. The General Motors subsidiary Cruise and the Google sister company Waymo are active in the city. They received permission from a California regulator over the summer to expand their driverless transportation services throughout the city. The city administration and numerous residents were against it. Among other things, they argued that the software-controlled vehicles often blocked traffic and thus hindered rescue workers during operations. The companies emphasize that robot cars drive safer than humans.
The only known fatal accident involving a self-driving car occurred in the US state of Arizona in 2018. A car from the ride-hailing company Uber hit a woman crossing the street during an evening test drive. She was pushing a bicycle with plastic bags on the handlebars next to her – and the situation overwhelmed the Uber software, which initially couldn’t correctly classify what she was dealing with. Uber sold its own development of self-driving cars at the end of 2020.
GM shares temporarily lost 2.14 percent to $29.68 on the NYSE.
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