Unmanned taxis in San Francisco are hampering emergency services with false calls

We recently wrote about emergency services in the US complaining about false calls because of Apple gadgets. As it turns out, a similar situation is also observed in San Francisco and Los Angeles not because of the gadgets, but because of Cruise and Waymo unmanned taxis.

Here's What We Know

City agencies have submitted a letter to regulators complaining about robot taxis. The letter was one in a series of letters sent to the California Public Utilities Commission this week by transport officials in San Francisco and Los Angeles. They sought to stop requests by Cruise and Waymo robotaxis to expand their toll services in both cities.

The letter refers to three incidents since December in which unmanned taxis were the cause of false rescue calls. Passengers stopped responding to the car's integrated voice communication system, causing Cruise employees to call 911. The police and rescue services arrived at the scene of the "accident" but only found the passenger sleeping peacefully inside the taxi.

In addition, Cruise vehicles often interfere with firefighters' work. One incident occurred in June last year, days after the state allowed Cruise to pick up paying passengers in the city. The agency said in an email that one of the company's robot taxis ran over a fire hose being used at the scene of the fire. A second similar incident occurred last week, with the car driving on firefighters' hoses before one of them had to smash the taxi's window. Last spring, a car blocked one of the department's fire engines on its way to a major fire for about 25 seconds.

In addition, between the end of May and the end of December, vehicles from the same company were hit 92 times when they suddenly stopped in the middle of the road for no reason.

Source: Wired