After the firetruck incident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles cut Cruise’s permitted fleet in half to 50 during the day and 150 at night. — Reuters
Cruise LLC, the robotaxi company owned by General Motors Co, said its fleet is now better equipped to deal with emergency vehicles following a series of safety incidents, including a collision with a firetruck that injured one of its customers.
The company has improved the robotaxis’ ability to recognise different sirens, fire hoses and caution tape. It’s also beefed up their advance alert system to help them clear the way for first responders.
Cruise and Waymo, the Alphabet Inc robotaxi unit, were given permission in August to expand paid driverless services in San Francisco. The Cruise firetruck collision occurred a week later, while other robotaxis have frozen in traffic, driven into wet cement and killed a pet.
“These changes were the result of our process of continuous improvement to safety and reliability in our service,” Cruise spokeswoman Navideh Forghani said in an email.
After the firetruck incident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles cut Cruise’s permitted fleet in half to 50 during the day and 150 at night. David Chiu, the San Francisco city attorney, petitioned the state to suspend the expanded fare licenses for both companies amid criticism from emergency responders that the robotaxis had been interfering with their work. His action is pending.
Cruise spent several months talking to fire fighters and law enforcement about improving its technology.
To make sure its vehicles don’t enter emergency response scenes, the company has programmed its cars to slow to 70% of the posted speed limit when they detect sirens, it said in a blog post about the improvements. The robotaxis are also now designed to predict if an emergency vehicle will drive through red lights, and at what speed that will happen.
When approaching intersections, Cruise’s system will identify additional early stopping locations if it detects either lights or sirens.
Cruise is also developing a means for its cars to recognise emergency scenes from greater distances and bypass double-parked vehicles. Emergency responders can enter the cars to move them manually from a scene if needed, the company said. – Bloomberg
