I robotic axis di San Francisco are a flop. In the city of Silicon Valley, the world capital of technological innovation, there are about 500 self-driving white cars. They offer several advantages: they cannot go faster than 50km/h, they remain "careful" and are forbidden to break the rules. However, the results are not what was expected. But let's go in order.
In June of 2022, San Francisco gave the green light for citizens to also take part in the test of these self-driving taxi and, last August 10, it approved their circulation without limits: available everywhere and at any time. But it's a disaster. Between malfunctions and accidents, robot taxis have often been the cause of traffic jams and on some occasions prevented the transit of emergency vehicles. Facts that prompted the administration to immediately rethink. The State Department has in fact asked Cruise, after yet another incident, to halving the presence on the road of its vehicles, which until further notice cannot exceed 50 units during the day and 150 during the night.
Why don't they work?
The two rival companies Cruise (business unit dedicated to robotaxis General Motors) to Waymo (self-driving company of the Alphabet group, i.e Google) already believed themselves to be pioneers in this field. San Francisco's public utility commission was ready to roll out driverless buses as well. But already in the months of experimentation in the capital of innovation it has often happened that the self-driving cars si would block e would obstruct traffic, or take roads with no entry allowed and find themselves bogged down in fresh concrete. Another in the middle of a shootout. But the umpteenth collision last Thursday between one of the Cruise cars and a fire truck traveling with sirens blaring called their future into question.
San Francisco, the protests: they are not so safe
In fact, Bay Area residents have been protesting for months, demanding instead an expansion of public services. Waymo and Cruise, on the other hand, have always prided themselves on the reliability and safety of their cars. But if we take stock of the accidents, that's not really the case. In just over a year of experimentation robot taxis have become involved in 600 accidents, none fatal (with the exception of being run over by a dog last May).
The theory fueling the ambition is that driverless cars are more safe of vehicles operated by human beings – often distracted and tired -, and robotaxis will never be able to run on the hilly streets of San Francisco, similar to those that Steve McQueen traveled during the famous chase scene in the 1968 film “Bullitt”. But the reality is very different. Despite the tech to realize it is advancing steadily, just like other artificial intelligence applications, the product was probably not yet ready for the actual debut. And it doesn't look like we'll see them circulating around Italy anytime soon, so the taxi drivers – yes on a war footing – can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now.
Cruise and Waymo will need to resolve as soon as possible i problems caused by their cars if they don't want to have their permission withdrawn.
