A group of autonomous Cruise LLC robotaxis blocked traffic this week in San Francisco when a group of them appeared to get stuck on a road.
Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for the company majority-owned by General Motors Co., confirmed the incident in a statement: “We had an issue earlier this week that caused some of our vehicles to cluster together. While it was resolved and no passengers were impacted, we apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced.”
Images shared on Twitter and Reddit show several Cruises halted in the road and near an intersection.
Cruise, which GM started in late June to offer driverless rides to paying customers on a small scale after receiving approval from the California Public Utilities Commission.
In another incident in April, a pedestrian caught sight of a Cruise AV getting pulled over by San Francisco Police, took video and posted it on Instagram.
Police said officers saw the Cruise vehicle driving without its headlights on and initiated a traffic stop. The officers then found there was no driver behind the wheel.
Cruise responded on Twitter, saying the “AV yielded to the police vehicle, then pulled over to the nearest safe location for the traffic stop, as intended. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no citation was issued,” which police confirmed at the time.
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