Idiot Pedestrian Cause for Cruise Traffic Jam

Just one day after the CPUC decided to give Waymo and Cruise unrestricted operating authority for driverless robotaxis in San Francisco, Cruise was in the headlines for a traffic jam. At an event, a dozen or so driverless Cruise robotaxis had stalled on a street near the event and were not moving. The resulting block long traffic jam had made headlines and robotaxi opponents felt their criticism was vindicated.

But now it turns out that a pedestrian had brought one of the Cruise Robotaxis to a halt, Cruise confirmed to the SF Examiner, and not so much an overload of the local cellular network as had first been suspected. It had been speculated that the mass of visitors had overloaded the cellular network, which the Cruise Robotaxis also use, and that’s why they didn’t continue.

Cruise did not disclose how exactly the pedestrian had blocked the Cruise in front, but this is not the first time people have jumped in front of robotaxis, endangering themselves and others and disrupting traffic. A collection of videos from Cruise shows people suddenly jumping in front of robotaxis between parked cars with full intent. Attacks against robotaxis are also documented.

After 15 minutes, the traffic jam was cleared after Cruise tele-assistants moved the vehicles to continue after checking safety.

This article was also published in German.

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