A driverless Cruise autonomous automobile collided with a semi-truck in San Francisco on August 7, Common Motors’ autonomous driving unit confirmed.
The accident was first reported on Twitter by Alf Santos (@alfsan), who posted a brief video and images with the aftermath of the crash, which occurred in San Francisco close to Golden Gate Park space.
Trying on the video, it seems that the Chevrolet Bolt EV-based autonomous ride-hailing automobile had been by hit the semi-truck’s trailer, which gave the impression to be concerned in a “swing broad” maneuver, briefly blocking the highway on the time of the collision. The footage confirmed the truck backing away from the Cruise automotive, which sustained harm to its passenger-side mirror and one in every of its cameras, in addition to a flat tire.
Cruise, which not too long ago ran a controversial advert saying people are horrible drivers, responded to the tweet that reported the collision and mentioned the semi-truck was in the proper lane when it tried to show left because the Cruise automotive was passing.
“We’re actively investigating, however we are able to verify that the truck tried a left flip from the proper lane whereas our automotive was passing. The AV got here to an entire cease to keep away from a collision when it detected the truck starting to maneuver, however the truck continued and struck our automobile.”
The corporate added that there have been no passengers within the Cruise AV on the time, and no accidents have been reported.
Now, the Common Motors unit’s assertion doesn’t appear to account for one more risk that seems probably on this case, particularly that the semi-truck was performing a “swing broad” maneuver – albeit a relatively poorly executed one – on the time the Cruise AV drove too near it.
Semi-truck drivers typically have to “swing broad” to account for the prolonged size of their autos when turning. Extra particularly, the truck should briefly enter an adjoining lane to the left or proper with a view to present sufficient room to finish the flip with out working over the curb.
It is potential that the Cruise robotaxi did not acknowledge one of these maneuver, besides, the truth that it stopped within the path of the turning semi because the truck was signaling a left flip doesn’t look superb.
Cruise autonomous autos have been concerned in a number of incidents in San Francisco for the reason that metropolis allowed the corporate to supply totally driverless rides in 2021. A lot of the incidents consisted of Cruise autos getting caught in intersections blocking site visitors, however there have been additionally extra critical occasions.
In June 2022, a Cruise AV was concerned in an accident with a Toyota Prius after the robotaxi turned left in entrance of the oncoming Prius. One passenger within the Cruise automotive was taken to the hospital, whereas 4 extra passengers (two from the robotaxi and two from the Toyota) wanted medical consideration for minor accidents.
Then in March 2023, a Cruise AV rear-ended a San Francisco municipal bus that was on the proper lane of the highway. No folks have been injured because the self-driving automotive carried no passengers on the time. Nevertheless, the incident triggered a recall of 300 Cruise AVs for a repair consisting of a software program replace.