A stalled Cruise robotaxi blocked a San Francisco ambulance from getting a pedestrian hit by a vehicle to the hospital in an Aug. 14 incident, according to first responder accounts. The patient later died of their injuries.
“The patient was packaged for transport with life-threatening injuries, but we were unable to leave the scene initially due to the Cruise vehicles not moving,” the San Francisco Fire Department report, first reported by Forbes, reads. “The fact that Cruise autonomous vehicles continue to block ingress and egress to critical 911 calls is unacceptable.”
Google map of the intersection. An intersection of two one-way streets.
Original report
If my guesses are correct, the Cruise cars weren’t programmed to expect an ambulance to want to go the wrong way down a one-way street.
What if there was any other vehicle stalled there? Wouldn’t it have been the same situation?
Also would be great if we had dedicated zones for autonomous vehicles that are clear of any obstacles, confusion or situations that even a normal driver could get stuck in.
Or like some effective form of public transportation
So… they should program it. Have a remote override for situations like this… something