What do you get when you’ve got an organization create, develop and take a look at a expertise nobody requested for with apparent technical points within the fifth largest metropolis within the nation? Irritated residents and metropolis officers, plus a clueless CEO who doesn’t suppose the issues are a giant deal. The Washington Publish sat down with Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt concerning the current troubles his firm’s driverless automobiles have been having in San Francisco. He thinks all of the backlash is overblown.
Autonomous automobile testing has been happening in California for over a decade now. But just lately it appears as if the autos, particularly ones from Cruise, have been having extra issues. Cruise has had 241 driverless automotive associated incidents since early 2022; 64 of these have been collisions. What does Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt must say about all of this? Fairly than instantly tackle the issues, he has attention-grabbing takes. From an odd take that it’s sensationalism on account of lack of information:
…in an interview with The Washington Publish, the CEO of the driverless automotive firm Cruise mentioned a lot of the angst ought to simply be chalked as much as anti-robot bias.
“Something that we do in another way than people is being sensationalized,” Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt mentioned.
To seemingly getting mad at state regulators for his or her elevated scrutiny over the robotaxi incidents, a lot in order that he appears to say that it’s all overblown as a result of there haven’t been any accidents.
Nobody has ever been critically damage throughout a number of million miles of driving and lots of of hundreds of rides supplied in San Francisco.
To downplaying a current site visitors incident involving dozens of robotaxis stalling in an intersection due to community congestion:
We’re speaking a couple of 15-minute site visitors delay for one thing that, however, is offering an enormous and fairly measurable public profit to the group.
He completed by saying there’s a double customary in the case of driverless automobiles in comparison with human drivers.
…he mentioned, it’s time for the general public to get rid of the “double customary” that it has for human drivers and driverless automobiles, saying that extra “mundane” points — like stopping quick in site visitors or veering into a motorcycle lane — wouldn’t catch any consideration if it was a human driver, however would trigger a firestorm if it was a driverless automotive.
“If I videotaped each single intersection, you see individuals blowing purple lights rolling via cease indicators and dashing,” he mentioned. “We’re surrounded by these hazards.”
Thankfully it seems like San Francisco metropolis officers don’t agree in any respect. They’re at the moment asking state officers to rethink their current choice to permit driverless automotive firms like Cruise and Waymo to develop service within the metropolis. Like one Carnegie Mellon College professor who has studied autonomous automobiles mentioned, it’s solely a matter of time earlier than a extra critical accident occurs.