Driverless Cars Blocking Buses, Traffic in San Francisco

“Bus and train surveillance videos obtained by WIRED through public records requests show a litany of incidents since September in which anxiety and confusion stirred up by driverless cars has spilled onto the streets of the US city that has become the epicenter for testing them,” reports Paresh Dave in Wired.

Buses in San Francisco, where Waymo and GM’s Cruise have launched their fleets of autonomous vehicles, are increasingly being hampered by the self-driving cars. Although the testing is legal based on state law, San Francisco officials have been pressuring state regulators to crack down on the vehicles until more safety testing is undertaken.

According to Dave, the city’s driverless cars have “proven to be a glitchy nuisance, snarling traffic and creeping into hazardous terrain such as construction zones and downed power lines” and making unplanned stops in the middle of the street.

Unlike pedestrians or smaller vehicles, buses and trains can’t easily circumvent a blockage like a stalled driverless car, “saddling transit-dependent travelers with some of the biggest headaches caused by errant driverless cars, according to transit advocates.”

Dave quotes a Muni bus driver blocked by a Waymo car, commenting on the purported intelligence of the vehicles: “This one not smart yet. Not smart.”