The California Fire Department speaks out against autonomous vehicles on public roads. Recently there was an incident involving the use of force.
The development of autonomous driving continues and encounters unforeseen developments. US news outlet Mission Local reports that San Francisco police and first responders are dealing with dysfunctional autonomous cars that get in the way of emergencies or cause traffic problems. Incidents show that this happens often.
Not only Tesla vehicles seem to have a problem with that Fire department to have, even Google and Cruise cars do not respond adequately to the rescue vehicles. The test vehicles are said to have either made a mistake and caused a traffic problem or gotten in the way in a situation where police and emergency responders were trying to get the car moving in 15 separate incidents.
In an incident on April 25, the fire brigade came into action. The fire truck turned into a narrow street that didn’t have enough room for two vehicles side by side. That’s how it should be Waymo robot taxi continued driving when the fire truck approached. It didn’t move, but continued toward the fire engine. It only stopped when it was three meters away.
The firefighters had to get out to talk to the vehicle’s monitor, causing it to drive away. The monitor replied that he understood the situation, but apparently the car was not responding to the instructions. The fire truck had to back up and take a different route.
In another incident in January, an autonomous car continued to drive toward a fire department. The emergency services feared that the car would run over the hoses and hinder the extinguishing work. So a firefighter himself intervened to stop the car. He yelled at the car first, knocked on the hood and then unceremoniously smashed the window. After that the car stopped.
The fire department at California is therefore against their use and hopes that these vehicles can better assess such situations. A recently introduced one Law should the Automation of the trucks regulate more. On-board personnel should be required.