It has been almost two months that Cruise, a provider of autonomous taxis, operates a number of its autonomous car fleet in San Francisco, United States.
Well, recently one of the autonomous taxis was stopped by the authorities, to be exact, the San Francisco Police Department. The reason, the car does not turn on the lights at night.
The incident when the autonomous car was stopped was recorded and posted on social media. Seen, the incident is quite unique. After the police named the Chevy Bolt that was transformed into the Cruise fleet, he looked out the window and looked confused because there was no driver.
The policeman then tried to open the door, but failed. He walked back to his police car. Interestingly, the autonomous car is back running and looks like running away from the police. But a few meters later the car stopped again and turned on its hazard lights.
Then the policeman approached the Cruise car again, and was seen looking for a way to turn on the headlights of the Chevy Bolt, as quoted from The Verge, Monday (11/4/2022).
Cruise spokesman Aaron McClear explained that the self-driving car was not trying to escape the police. Instead he tried to find a safer place to stop. McClear also confirmed that the car was stopped by the police because it didn't turn on the headlights, and now the problem has been fixed.
"The vehicle complied with police orders, and then stopped again at a nearby safe location. Officers have contacted Cruise personnel and no ticket has been issued," McClear said.
Cruise is a subsidiary of General Motors, which uses LIDAR technology as the "eye" of its autonomous cars. They have been operating a shuttle service in San Francisco since 2017, and are now expanding their service to taxis.