San Francisco is getting cold feet about self-driving car tests

San Francisco’s position at the heart of Silicon Valley and its wealth of technology talent has made it a hotbed for the driverless car industry. Both Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Cruise, owned by General Motors, operate experimental robotic taxi services in the city. But details of other incidents with driverless cars have now emerged in letters from city officials. These unexpected stops on busy streets range from minutes to hours, says one of the letters, giving an example of a Cruise car that reportedly stopped and blocked a San Francisco Fire Department vehicle on its way to a fire. “If the Commission approves sweeping authorizations for both Waymo and Cruise, the hazards and network impacts… could soon affect a large percentage of all San Francisco travelers.”Neither Cruise nor Waymo responded to a request for comment by New Scientist.