The future is now—and that future is way less cool than we imagined it would be.
The San Francisco police department and Cruise driverless vehicles had an interesting run-in over the weekend. The incident, which was caught on video by bystanders, has people full of questions - and the Cruise social media team working in overdrive.
Footage shows the officer pulled up behind the white and red Chevy bolt - a vehicle which had been converted into a Cruise car. Cruise vehicles are driverless robotaxis available from 10pm to 6am around San Francisco.
This one in the video was driving without the lights on - not only dangerous and illegal, but indicative of a technical issue with the cars computer.
The clip shows the officer approach and examine the car, try to open the door, and then start walking back to his car.
The driverless vehicle then drives away, crosses the street, and pulls over again - something people on Twitter believe a human would face dire consequences for.
The officer follows, pulling over to again inspect the vehicle The rest of the vehicle can best be described as a dystopian sci-fi farce as a group of officers, essentially, dawdles around while on the phone with tech support.
Way less cool than the driverless cars Hollywood promised us; but absolutely on brand for 2022.
People had a lot to say about what they saw.
The social media team at Cruise stepped in to provide some context to the video.
According to them, the robotaxi did exactly as it was programmed to do. Cruise spokesperson, Aaron Mclear, agrees. He reiterated the statement to The Verge, adding that there is a designated phone number for police to use when dealing with Cruise vehicles.
So yeah, the cops had to call tech support.
“The vehicle yielded to the police car, then pulled over to the nearest safe location for the traffic stop. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no citation was issued. We work closely with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicles and have a dedicated phone number for them to call in situations like this.”
Twitter isn't so sure about this.
The Cruise spokesperson assured media outlets that any issues with the vehicle have been rectified, but did not clarify what led to the vehicle driving through the city without lights on in the first place.
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