It was claimed that the front of the ambulance carrying the injured was blocked by two driverless taxis. The problem is that the firefighter version has not been approved by its counterpart, General Motors. The incident took place in San Francisco, California. The protagonists of the story are Cruise’s “robotaxy”, and the transported casualties would have died precisely because of the delays caused by the two automated vehicles.
Auto taxi service in San Francisco
For nearly a year, San Francisco has been the pilot city for two driverless taxi projects: “Cruise”, managed by General Motor, and “Waymo,” a service managed by Google’s parent company Alphabet. There were several criticisms during this trial period: New York Times, San Francisco Fire Department He states that more than 70 vehicles can intervene in emergency vehicles. The cases are allegedly related to obstruction of firefighting operations or crime scene investigations. And according to some San Francisco city officials, these will only be a small fraction of the cases that are actually confirmed.
The last and most serious was to occur on August 14, 2023: Cruise’s two driverless taxis became stuck in the lane in front of an ambulance carrying an injured person in an accident in one of the two lanes. free stripes. There’s a police car in the other lane. Taxis did not make room for the ambulance, which would not be able to move forward. The police car had to be moved in order to pass. This delay would be fatal.
Everyone is against autonomous driving
It was announced that the patient who was hit by the car died about 20-30 minutes after arriving at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, about 4 kilometers from the accident scene. According to the fire department, the delay caused by Cruises transportation could have been very significant.
General Motors disagrees: new In the images taken by the cameras in the vehicle, it was claimed that one of the vehicles drove away from the scene before the victim was loaded into the ambulance, and the other one stood in the right lane until the ambulance arrived.
The video also shows other vehicles, including another ambulance, passing by on the right side of the Cruise taxi: “As soon as the victim was loaded into the ambulance, the ambulance immediately left the scene and was never blocked,” the company said. said in a press release. According to the footage, the ambulance passed by the stationary Cruise vehicle about 90 seconds after loading the injured person.
The conflict is now shifting to the political and legislative aspects: The “California department of motor vehicles” wants Cruise to halve the number of vehicles circulating in the city, while the city council wants to submit a motion to increase service. San Francisco prosecutor David Chiu has asked the California public services commission, the agency that approved the expansion of the service, to further investigate the matter.
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Source: Today IT

Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.