Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

It has been a week since Silicon Valley lifted the ban on unmanned cars, and it has been a week of frequent accidents.

On the second day after obtaining the unrestricted operation permit, ten Cruise Robotaxi suddenly stalled on the road, causing a traffic jam. A few days later, a Cruise Robotaxi rushed into the road construction area and got stuck in wet concrete.

To make matters worse, recently, a Cruise Robotaxi crashed into a fire engine at an intersection, airbags ejected and passengers were taken to hospital.

This led the California Motor vehicle Administration (DMV) to announce an investigation into Cruise and said it might revoke Cruise Robotaxi's deployment license based on the findings.

But at the same time, it also brings a new reference for China to explore the landing of Robotaxi.

On August 13, a week with frequent unmanned car accidents, about ten Cruise Robotaxi cars suddenly stalled on a road in San Francisco. From the live video, these Robotaxi directly turned on emergency flasher and stabbed in the middle of the road, including the intersection.

▲ photo source: X user @ AaronPeskin the flameout accident caused an expected traffic jam. About 20 minutes later, Cruise staff came to drive Robotaxi away, and the traffic at the scene gradually resumed.

Coincidentally, a street in San Francisco was being re-concreted just days after the flameout. But to the surprise of the surrounding residents and workers, a Cruise Robotaxi broke directly into the construction area and got stuck.

▲ photo source: SFGATE later Cruise staff scrambled to remove the unmanned car from the concrete and recycle the vehicle. Fortunately, there were no passengers on the bus at that time.

But the other accident that followed was not so lucky.

On the evening of August 17, a Cruise Robotaxi was carrying passengers. As we entered an intersection, a fire engine that was out of duty was roaring past. Robotaxi could not dodge and hit him.

▲ source: X user @ friscolive415 the airbag ejected in the car, and the passengers were taken to the hospital after receiving treatment at the scene, saying they had a headache.

There was no further information on the passenger's injury, but Cruise responded later, "We don't think the passenger is seriously injured."

These accidents occurred after San Francisco announced the lifting of Robotaxi operational restrictions, in which the mass flameout occurred the day after the restrictions were lifted.

The unmanned car after opening up operation has exposed the long tail problem that will occur in more self-driving landings.

What's the follow-up to the accident? In response to the mass flameout, Cruise blamed the ongoing Outside Lands Music Festival for the problem.

Cruise believes that because of the large number of people attending the music festival, there is a problem with the wireless connection of the vehicle, which makes it impossible for the company to arrange the driving route of the vehicle remotely.

The mass flameout took place on Grant Avenue in North Beach Avenue on North Beach, about 4.4miles from Golden Gate Park, where the festival was held.

Later, the San Francisco police also confirmed that the large number of people at the music festival led to an overburden on the system, affecting nearby wireless connections.

Although it seems that the accident is not a problem with Cruise, it also reflects the possibility that Robotaxi will suddenly stop and block traffic when there is something wrong with the communication equipment or a power outage.

Cruise also gives an analysis of accidents that collide with fire engines.

Cruise said that because the intersection is blocked by buildings and limited field of view, it is impossible to see objects at the corner unless it is very close to the intersection.

Coupled with the fact that the fire engine ran a red light in the oncoming driveway, it was a challenge for Robotaxi to identify the route of the fire engine.

▲ source: X user @ friscolive415 but Cruise's Robotaxi has the ability to detect emergency alarms, does identify fire engines, is aware of the risk of collision, and takes braking measures to slow down, but still fails to avoid accidents.

At the same time, Cruise also made it clear that the company has contacted the injured passengers and will provide support.

Cruise did not respond to the incident of falling into concrete. But there have been so many accidents in just one week, especially one in which a passenger was injured, and Cruise has attracted the attention of the California Motor vehicle Administration (DMV).

DMV in California recently said it was investigating Cruise, including all incidents related to the company's Robotaxi.

Meanwhile, California's DMV requires Cruise to reduce its Robotaxi by 50%. And before the completion of the investigation, the number of Robotaxi operated should not exceed 50 during the day and no more than 150 at night.

California DMV added that California DMV reserves the right to suspend or revoke permission to test and deploy Robotaxi for Cruise if any circumstances are found in the investigation that pose a risk to public safety.

Cruise also responded that it will actively cooperate with the investigation and will also cooperate with city departments to reduce the incidence of emergency vehicle collisions.

How to interpret it? At present, Robotaxi has been able to carry out round-the-clock, city-wide, unmanned fee-based operation in San Francisco.

Although this license can be regarded as hard-won. After all, the regulatory attitude had been unclear before the announcement, coupled with the frequent Robotaxi accidents in Waymo and Cruise in San Francisco, which caused a lot of dissatisfaction and a lot of dangerous actions to stop cars.

But in the end, after a six-hour hearing by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), it was agreed that Waymo and Cruise's Robotaxi could carry unlimited passengers in San Francisco.

The opposition at the hearing mainly focused on security and employment security.

The latter has been controversial since the birth of unmanned cars, while the former has real data to prove that the view that Robotaxi will cause more traffic accidents is not valid.

Unmanned cars operated by Waymo and Cruise have had a total of 12 accidents in the past six months, causing a total of less than 90 points of traffic jams, according to official statistics from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Department.

Even with the accidents exposed this week, the total number of traffic accidents is only 15, and the length of traffic jams has increased to about 110 points.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, there were more than 2751 human-caused traffic accidents in the first half of this year alone, including 11 fatal accidents.

This really reflects that although academia and industry have reached a consensus, generally speaking, cognitive bias still exists, and autopilot is not equal to zero accidents.

What autopilot can do is to replace human beings with uncertainties and provide higher safety, so as to reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents and improve traffic efficiency. So how to train AI drivers to grow from novice to veteran drivers can not avoid running more and bringing more data in the real environment.

And this time the full liberalization of Robotaxi, the continuous exposure of various accidents, to a certain extent, is to re-tell the public what the nature of autopilot is. At the same time, the accidents also tell Robotaxi what other long-tail problems need to be solved, so that the autopilot system continues to iterate.

Moreover, these accidents also provide traffic control departments with first-hand cases, which can provide a good reference when drafting standardized laws and regulations related to unmanned vehicles, such as how to divide the boundaries of responsibility.

More importantly, these accidents, cases and follow-up treatment methods provide a practical reference for China to explore the landing of unmanned vehicles. How to avoid some problems and take fewer detours, China can touch Silicon Valley to cross the river.

Reference link:

Https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/18/cruise-robotaxi-involved-in-a-crash-with-fire-truck-one-passenger-injured/

Https://twitter.com/friscolive415/status/1692459458994323757?s=20

Https://twitter.com/AaronPeskin/status/1690419383263481856?s=20

Https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/cruise-stuck-wet-concrete-sf-18297946.php

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