One day after California regulators awarded Cruise a milestone allow in its efforts to commercialize autonomous-driving expertise, one of many firm’s autos was concerned in a crash that resulted in a number of accidents.
The crash occurred in San Francisco on the night time of June 3, when a Cruise automobile working in autonomous mode made a left flip in entrance of an oncoming Toyota Prius on the intersection of Geary Boulevard and Spruce Street.
Occupants of each autos have been injured, in line with a report Cruise filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Todd Brugger, Cruise’s vice chairman of world markets, wrote within the report that police and emergency medical providers handled the occupants for “allegedly minor injuries.”
General Motors-backed Cruise mentioned its self-driving automobile got here to a cease within the roadway earlier than finishing its left flip, and was stationary when struck.
The firm supplied additional statements about its interpretation of the place and conduct of the human-driven Toyota Prius in its submitting, saying the Prius was dashing and that it had continued straight from a right-turn lane.
Those particulars couldn’t be independently verified. A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department couldn’t discover an incident report associated to the crash Wednesday, and mentioned it was attainable no report was generated.
A Cruise spokesperson declined Wednesday to say why the AV stopped earlier than finishing its flip.
Although the Cruise automobile might have been stationary, Phil Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and autonomous-vehicle security knowledgeable, mentioned rather more data would nonetheless be wanted to evaluate the conduct of each people and machine within the crash.
“Many people have a word for a driver who cuts in front of them and then stops in the road, and it’s not a polite or charitable word,” he mentioned. “There are a lot of unknowns here. We don’t know if the Prius driver intended to turn right, but then swerved to try and avoid the crash with the stationary vehicle, for example. There are just a lot of unknowns.”
In its necessary report, Cruise mentioned the crash occurred whereas the automobile was in “driverless autonomous mode.” The firm spokesperson declined to offer extra specifics on whether or not the human occupant or human occupants within the self-driving automotive was or have been a ride-hailing passenger or an worker.
Source: www.autonews.com
