Cruise self-driving vehicle fleet running at half-capacity after incident

A road incident occurred between a Cruise robotic taxi and a fire truck at an intersection in San Francisco last week. According to Forbes, no serious injuries were reported, but the authorities launched an investigation and ordered Cruise to cut the number of test vehicles on the city streets by half in the meantime.

The self-driving car was attempting to pass the intersection under green light, but as it did so, it failed to register a fire truck approaching from the side with its siren blaring. It ended up stopping in the way of the truck and colliding with it. There was a passenger in the taxi at the moment.

Thanks to the airbags deploying, the passenger was able to avoid major injury, but was nonetheless taken to a hospital for an examination.

Commenting on the incident, a Cruise representative explained that the taxi’s electronic systems detected the fire siren well in advance, but something went wrong afterwards. In all likelihood, the vehicle was confused by the fire truck running a red light and crossing over to the opposing lane. The company rep admitted that it was supposed to clear the way for the emergency vehicle and avoid moving forward with it nearby, but not in direct sight.

For the duration of the investigation, Cruise is now legally required to keep half of its San Francisco fleet parked out of harm’s way. We will leave it up to you to decide whether that fits the definition of ‘half-measure’.