Traffic in San Francisco was purportedly stalled during morning rush hour due to an apparent Waymo autonomous vehicle that had stopped in the middle of a major intersection.
A Waymo spokeswoman told SFGATE via email that a driverless car stopped near 19th Avenue and Ulloa Street in the Inner Sunset at roughly 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday.
The vehicle “entered a very complex and busy intersection,” the official said. The vehicle halted in the middle of the road due to “unexpected temporary road closures,” the representative claimed. According to a driver who was there at the event, traffic was backed up all the way to Crossover Drive in Golden Gate Park as vehicles tried to get past the stranded Waymo.
The company did not indicate what time the automobile was taken from the crossing, but the spokesperson for the company stated that members of the “rider assistance team” eventually took the vehicle away from the intersection.
About two months ago, Waymo obtained approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to allow its vehicles to go almost entirely across the city without drivers, making it the second city to have access to the once Google-owned service. Phoenix is the first. Kimberly Alters, the deputy managing editor of SFGATE, called her ride with Waymo “extremely comfortable,” but she was unsure of the purpose of the driverless technology.
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