California has given the green light for more driverless taxis to operate in San Francisco — despite safety fears after crashes and near misses caused chaos.
Regulators from the California Public Utilities Commission passed the groundbreaking decision Thursday, making the City by the Bay the first in the country to allow robot cabs to roam freely without restrictions.
Alphabet-owned Waymo and General Motors-owned Cruise are the companies allowed to operate in the city after the three-to-one vote.
This is despite objections from local officials who said the vehicles are not safe and unions who raised the alarm about the threat the cars pose to taxi drivers.
A Waymo self-driving car killed a small dog in broad daylight in San Francisco in a neighborhood east of Bernal Heights in May. The fatal accident occurred near a dog training center, according to an incident report from the DMV.
Waymo (pictured), owned by Alphabet, and Cruise, owned by General Motors, are the companies allowed to operate in the city after the three-to-one vote
Self-driving cars have been involved in a series of incidents, including running into a city bus
Meanwhile, a Cruise self-driving taxi stopped a bus in town, forcing the company to recall the automated driving software in 300 of its vehicles.
In addition, drivers from San Francisco have reported an issue where the vehicles stopped in the middle of the road and sometimes remained stationary for hours.
In February, San Francisco’s fog rolled in from the bay, causing several cars to grind to a halt in the middle of a busy street because their sensors couldn’t “see” through the haze.
As human drivers honked their horns, there was no escaping it.
A two-mile traffic jam ensued before technicians arrived, manually took over controls and cleared the street.
When a robotaxi was stopped by the police for driving without headlights at night, it stopped briefly before crossing an intersection before ‘going for it’.
Driverless taxis have been operating in the city for some time, but until now have been limited to certain areas and whether they can serve paying passengers.
San Francisco drivers have reported an issue where the vehicles stopped in the middle of the road and sometimes remained stationary for hours
Waymo cars are now allowed to travel at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour without human drivers at the wheel, even in bad weather.
The company also received approval to offer self-driving car rides to paying passengers in its Silicon Valley hometown of Mountain View.
Cruise was approved to operate passenger service in San Francisco at speeds not exceeding 35 miles per hour and not through dense fog or heavy smoke.
Previously, Cruise could only charge customers during certain hours of the day. Waymo was not allowed to charge for journeys without a human driver on board.
“Today is the first of many steps to bring AV (autonomous vehicle) transportation services to Californians and establish a successful and transparent model for other states to follow,” said CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds, who voted to approve it.
The decision comes after activists from the Safe Streets Rebel protest group, which advocates for pedestrian safety, posted multiple videos on their social media platforms showing them disabling the robot taxis by placing a traffic cone on the hood.
Placing a traffic cone on the hood of the self-driving car disables it, protesters say they are trying to raise concerns about the safety issues surrounding robot cars
The group staged the protest after robotic vehicles were blamed for a series of incidents.
Self-driving cars were first introduced in San Francisco in 2014 with a mandatory human “safety driver” on board.
Four years later, California removed the requirement that a human driver be in the car.
The CPUC session drew commentators from all sides on the issue, with some calling robotaxis unsafe threats while others touting them as solutions to everything from climate change to road rage.
Self-driving cars have become stuck in the middle of roads, blocked bus lanes, or even hindered police or firefighters.
But others at the hearing praised the vehicles for giving independence to people with disabilities, making roads safer and helping to eliminate discrimination.
There are currently about 200 Waymo Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles in the city, which are currently free to riders, while Cruise has 240 Chevy Bolt electric vehicles, which cost about the same as a ride-sharing service.
The system works by people ‘calling’ the car through an app on their phone and, like ride-sharing services like Uber, track it on screen until it reaches their location.
The car navigates using an array of radar, lidar (laser imaging) and rotating sensors on the roof, front, rear and sides, as well as cameras that collect data in real time. It uses AI to steer and its algorithms allow the car to improve its performance over time as it learns to adapt to the environment.
Once you have arrived, unlock the doors via the app, put on your seatbelt and press ‘start’ to begin the ride. You can play music, adjust the temperature and charge your phone.