Cruise Vehicles Cause Traffic Jam After California’s Approval

California regulators recently gave the green light on Thursday for autonomous taxi service in San Francisco, granting permission to two competing companies, Cruise and Waymo. By Friday evening, a fleet of Cruise vehicles had come to an abrupt halt in the North Beach area of the city, their hazard lights flashing and causing a traffic backlog, as reported.

This service expansion, endorsed by a 3 to 1 vote from California’s Public Utilities Commission, positioned San Francisco as the inaugural major U.S. urban center to permit two robotaxi enterprises to vie for business “around the clock.” This decision enables Waymo and Cruise to increase their vehicle fleets as necessary and set ride fares at any time of the day.

Traffic Delay and Regulatory Challenges in San Francisco

After encountering significant opposition from San Francisco’s fire and police departments and various groups, a weekend traffic congestion materialized. These groups contested the decision made by regulators. During a recent hearing, officials from the city’s fire and police departments and the municipal transportation agency compiled a report detailing over 600 incidents involving autonomous vehicles since June 2022. These incidents encompassed various issues, such as erratic behaviors near emergency zones, impeding emergency response, close encounters or near collisions with personnel and equipment, and more.

Before Thursday’s vote, Waymo and Cruise faced limitations on their operations in San Francisco. Specifically, Cruise could only provide paid services in certain areas from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. without a safety driver present. However, this limitation didn’t apply if the rides were free, allowing around-the-clock service. Meanwhile, if a safety driver was onboard, Cruise could always charge fares.

For Waymo, the situation was somewhat analogous. Before the regulators’ ruling, the company couldn’t charge passengers for ride-hailing without a safety driver present. However, if a safety driver was in the vehicle, Waymo had the green light to impose ride fares at any time.

Waymo reported having received over 100,000 registrations on a waitlist for their service. Co-CEO of Waymo, Tekedra Mawakana, stated that their service’s expansion signifies the commencement of their commercial operations in San Francisco.

Although Waymo chose not to disclose the ride-hailing statistics for the weekend or provide insight into whether the Cruise traffic congestion will impact their future operational plans, Chris Ludwick, the company’s product management director, said there is a significant surge in demand for their service.

Ludwick also noted that they have consistently taken a step-by-step approach to implementing their technology. They plan to continue gradually expanding their service and vehicle fleet in San Francisco, with an ongoing focus on safety and meeting the needs of the local communities.

Expanding Cruise Autonomous Vehicles

During a call in July, Kyle Vogt, Cruise CEO, discussed the strategy to extensively cover a city similar to San Francisco with Cruise autonomous vehicles. He mentioned that the company would need to increase its manufacturing efforts to achieve this goal. Additionally, he expressed the company’s potential intention to introduce a substantial number of robotaxis, numbering in the thousands, within that region.

During the call, Vogt noted that San Francisco boasts over 10,000 human ride-hail drivers, with the potential for even more when considering various factors.