Cruise may have committed its first blunder after its San Francisco expansion.
The driverless taxi company recently had one of its cars get stuck in wet concrete a week after the company got the permission it needed to officially expand its services to San Francisco.
San Francisco residents opposed the expansion due to past grievances, such as robotaxis blocking roads, causing traffic jams, and impeding emergency vehicles.
Like Watching Concrete Dry
Cruise's operations in San Francisco, California, have been quite an eventful week since the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) gave it clearance to operate in the city. However, its luck may have run out with its first incident that doesn't involve traffic.
According to a report from SFGate, a Cruise driverless taxi found itself stuck in a patch of wet concrete while traveling through San Francisco's Western Addition Neighborhood. Although a resident going by the name of Paul Harvey said there were passengers in the car when it happened, it remained lodged in the wet cement patch for some time - at a construction site no less.
"I can see five different scenarios where bad things happen and this is one of them," Harvey told SFGate. "It thinks it's a road and it ain't because it ain't got a brain and it can't tell that it's freshly poured concrete."
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Cruise workers ultimately rescued its fallen driverless taxi, though SFGate's report didn't mention how long the car stayed in the patch.
The incident doesn't make Cruise look good to San Francisco residents and CPUC, in general. Some of the company's driverless taxis came t a standstill on a busy street with hazard lights flashing, creating a traffic jam, as seen in many videos posted on Twitter/X.com.
Cruise reasoned that a local music festival was hogging up the mobile bandwidth the cars needed to operate, which caused connectivity delays to the car in question. The company said it was actively investigating and working on solutions to prevent it from happening again.
Cruise's Potential Consequences
A protester holds a sign during a demonstration outside of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on August 07, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
However, San Francisco residents and the CPUC are not quick to forget such accidents. The company's driverless taxis had caused 12 incidents (reported) involving San Francisco's Municipal Transport Authority between Sept. 2022 and Mar. 2023.
These incidents include one in which one of Cruise's driverless taxis came to a complete stop in front of a city bus.
The CPUC is careful about incidents like this, regardless of how small they are. You may recall that CPUC Commissioner Darcie Houck assured that the government agency could vote to limit the number of vehicles allowed on the road if Waymo and Cruise's robotaxis become a nuisance.
They could even revoke the companies' permits altogether if the issue is severe enough to warrant a like-sized response. Additionally, The Verge reported that San Francisco residents voiced their opposition to Waymo and Cruise's expansion to the city for six hours due to the problems they aired out.
Related Article: Cruise, Waymo Win Expansion Approval in San Francisco
