Over a Dozen Robotaxis Cause Massive Traffic Jam in Austin

Table Of Content

• Self-driving car company Cruise pauses even more operations as it aims to rebuild trust
• Latest from our reporters
• Over A Dozen Robotaxis Cause A Huge Traffic Jam In Austin
• Robotaxi
• Kurdish separatists and water issues loom large in …
• Cruise wasn’t hiding the pedestrian-dragging video from regulators — it just had bad internet

As you can see in the video, one of the Cruise vehicles got stuck in an intersection while committing to a turn, thus further congesting traffic in three different directions. But that hasn't stopped residents from complaining about blocked intersections and interference with emergency services. The department has since reached out to equivalent bodies in Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C. The cars have also gotten stuck in crosswalks, at green lights, in intersections, and even played chicken with other Cruise vehicles. In fact, just have a look at the r/Austin subreddit and you'll quickly see how the self-driving experiment has tested the patience of locals.

Self-driving car company Cruise pauses even more operations as it aims to rebuild trust

Those incidents have been piling up since Cruise began operating driverless cars in Austin last year. Records obtained by KUT show residents calling 311 to say they were almost hit by autonomous vehicles. Cruise vehicles are not the only autonomous vehicles that have been operating on Austin roads. Companies including Waymo and Volkswagen are currently testing such vehicles in Austin. Until autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI shut down last year, Ford and Argo AI were also testing self-driving vehicle technology in Austin including ride-hailing and delivery services. It was a bizarre end to a week that otherwise represented a significant milestone in the development of autonomous vehicles.

Pushing THEIR buttons! Texas drivers are left furious as 20 Cruise self-driving cars cause gridlock in Austin - Daily Mail

Pushing THEIR buttons! Texas drivers are left furious as 20 Cruise self-driving cars cause gridlock in Austin.

Posted: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Latest from our reporters

Cruise and Waymo say they are in constant dialogue with police, fire, and emergency services and have created training programs for first responders to “safely interact” with their vehicles. They also say that every incident is used as training data to be uploaded to the rest of the fleet to avoid repeating the same mistakes. In response to the incident, Cruise issued a statement emphasizing their unwavering commitment to safety.

Over A Dozen Robotaxis Cause A Huge Traffic Jam In Austin

Cruise’s efforts to manually reroute the vehicles proved too slow, exacerbating the traffic jam. However, once alerted to the situation, Cruise promptly took control and autonomously guided all their electric vehicles out of the congested area. A lieutenant with the fire station at 506 West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard even fretted in an internal e-mail that driverless vehicles were presenting an issue for fire trucks leaving the station, because the cars would stop in place when they detected emergency lights. On the evening of Saturday, Sept. 30, firefighters responded to a Cruise vehicle stopped in the road and blocking traffic. The screen in the vehicle said a crash had occurred, according to an incident report.

Robotaxi

A spokesperson hinted that the problem may have been related to pedestrian traffic, though the footage circulating social media does not show an abundance of people nearby during the gridlock. According to several local news reports, 10 Cruise vehicles sat paralyzed in a busy intersection near the Outside Lands Music Festival, causing a traffic jam and drawing exasperation from witnesses. The company told KPIX that the music festival caused “wireless connectivity issues” with its vehicles. In other words, festivalgoers were overwhelming the cellular networks, making it difficult for Cruise’s vehicles to send and receive information.

NEW! Newswire Corner!

The 48-second clip shows gridlocked traffic on a narrow Austin street dominated by Cruise EVs. Unfortunately, some of Cruise’s growing pains in Austin were caught on camera as a swarm of robotaxis flooded a congested area. We spoke to Cruise and got the lowdown about what exactly happened. By Andrew J. Hawkins, transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation.

The bill also set minimum safety standards for self-driving cars operating in Texas. The legislation, Senate Bill 2205, was celebrated by General Motors at the time. So firefighters couldn't roll the vehicle out of the intersection. Some residents were just weirded out by gangs of robot cars roaming in packs through their neighborhood.

About 20 Cruise-operated Chevrolet Bolts were seen stuck up and down San Gabriel Street late Saturday night. Some had shifted into the oncoming side of the two-lane street, even forcing a pair of Cruise cars to face one another in some sort of autonomous stand-off, blocking traffic even further. Moreover, the dearth of viable north-south routes through the city and an unplanned detour from an alternative route resulted in several robotaxis converging on the same beleaguered thoroughfare.

Cruise wasn’t hiding the pedestrian-dragging video from regulators — it just had bad internet

You can request a ride for a Cruise in a limited area in Austin through the company's ride-hailing app. Similar to an Uber, fares are determined by the estimated time and distance of a route. Spokeswoman Anna Hauss said the cars are available only at night right now to help passengers who don't like driving in the dark or who are concerned about drunk drivers. Local news channel KVUE also outlined a separate incident that occurred earlier this week involving a Cruise vehicle stopped in an intersection. That incident caught the eye of Austin City Council Member Zohaib Qadri. Qadri called both incidents "a mess" and expressed plans to voice his safety concerns at the next mobility council meeting.

When they arrived, four Cruise employees were already there, an incident report said. Cruise told KUT the empty vehicle had been hit by a driver running a stop sign. But first responders were increasingly alarmed at the behavior of the driverless vehicles, records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act show. "We do have a lot of interest in Austin," Rachel Castignoli, a city official monitoring autonomous vehicle companies, said of competing firms.

In essence, while the recent Austin traffic snarl involving Cruise’s robotaxis was a minor hiccup for some commuters, it underscores the complexities of integrating autonomous vehicles into bustling urban landscapes. Even though Cruise is voluntarily taking driverless vehicles off Austin's streets, the halt is only temporary. Austin is in a bind as it relates to autonomous vehicles, as state law prevents cities in Texas from regulating them. Texas does require autonomous vehicle operators to report accidents and incidents with local authorities, and vehicles must be registered. You can tell that many San Franciscans are sick and tired of playing guinea pig to these tech companies.

Drivers and cyclists have tweeted videos of the cars exhibiting strange behavior, however. Some videos show the cars just stopped in the middle of a road or at intersections with their hazards on. Cruise cars use sensors that include cameras, radar and light detection, and ranging systems to provide data to the artificial intelligence controlling them. This AI predicts what’s happening on the roads and the behavior of surrounding cars and pedestrians.

His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Cruise had provided training to Austin firefighters on how to get inside the Chevy Bolt and drive the vehicle. But a Cruise employee, speaking to an Austin firefighter remotely, refused to grant them permission. The employee said they couldn't verify the uniformed firefighters were actually firefighters and not civilians. "It is very alarming with how close the [Cruise] vehicles are getting," a firefighter wrote on Sept. 2. "The Cruise vehicle's actions are not predictable and there is no mutual communication with them."

"It's unfortunate that state law doesn't allow us to regulate this unproven technology on our streets." The city says it has no record of anyone being hurt by an autonomous vehicle in Austin. Cruise says it takes all incidents seriously and argues it has a good track record after more than 5 million driverless miles. After waves of complaints from residents in Austin and elsewhere, Cruise announced Thursday it was suspending self-driving taxi operations nationwide to build "public trust." The pauses came after one of the company’s vehicles was involved in a high-profile incident in early October where a Cruise vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian in California.