Incident Rates of Autonomous Vehicles in San Francisco
According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, incidents involving autonomous cars in San Francisco have dropped noticeably. The Silicon Valley city is at the forefront of the development and use of robotaxis, which have become a tourist magnet.
In August 2023, the Californian authority CPUC awarded commercial robotaxi licenses to Cruise and Waymo, some of which led to protests. The fire department and the city feared obstructions caused by the robotaxis and began keeping records.
The statistics on such incidents showed an increase in such moments, especially in August 20203 where 25 of them were reported. However, these have now fallen drastically, as both the firefighters report and the figures show. Of a total of 82 incidents recorded between January 2023 and January 2024, 25 occurred in August. Most of the incidents, 53, were attributed to Cruise, 26 to Google’s sister company Waymo.
Number of incidents reported by the fire department involving robotaxis in San Francisco between January 2023 and January 2024
Following an accident for which Cruise was only partially at fault, after which his robotaxi license was temporarily revoked in October 2023, there were hardly any more incidents. Only 3 incidents were reported between November 2023 and January 2024.
One reason for this is that Cruise is no longer in operation, while Waymo has also taken measures to ensure that their vehicles do not become an obstacle. For example, journeys are rerouted as soon as news of fire department operations is reported. Stopping in front of fire stations is also avoided.
KREATIVE INTELLIGENZ
Über ChatGPT hat man viel gelesen in der letzten Zeit: die künstliche Intelligenz, die ganze Bücher schreiben kann und der bereits jetzt unterstellt wird, Legionen von Autoren, Textern und Übersetzern arbeitslos zu machen. Und ChatGPT ist nicht allein, die KI-Familie wächst beständig. So malt DALL-E Bilder, Face Generator simuliert Gesichter und MusicLM komponiert Musik. Was erleben wir da? Das Ende der Zivilisation oder den Beginn von etwas völlig Neuem? Zukunftsforscher Dr. Mario Herger ordnet die neuesten Entwicklungen aus dem Silicon Valley ein und zeigt auf, welche teils bahnbrechenden Veränderungen unmittelbar vor der Tür stehen.
But critics are still finding reasons why they want to ban robotaxis from the streets. The activist group Safe Street Rebels keeps a list that documents every incident or unexpected behavior of the robotaxis, no matter how small. It should be noted that the same activist group does not keep a record of incidents involving human drivers, which comes across as somewhat hypocritical.
Administrators in cities such as Houston and Atlanta have asked San Francisco what they can expect once robotaxis are deployed there. The measures taken by the robotaxi companies show how important it is to test the vehicles in practice in order to react appropriately to all possible situations.
This article was also published in German.