In June 2022, we told you that in the United States, specifically in San Francisco, the autonomous taxis of the Cruise company belonging to General Motors began to operate.

In a few months, the company Waymo of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, joined him. But what on paper seemed like a solution has led to serious problems for the emergency services, in fact the police and fire brigade are already fed up with this type of service.

A growing number of 100% autonomous vehicles are circulating on the streets of San Francisco, thanks to the great comfort it offers customers.

However, in the event of an emergency, the inefficiency of this service was noted, and they even had to break the windows of autonomous vehicles to be able to operate safely.

The specific problem is that in addition to blocking various crossings, they interfere with emergency actions in which firefighters and police must operate.

According to the local newspaper “Mission”, it is becoming a daily problem and according to officials in a report “it is a growing problem. I think there are many more incidents that go unreported.”

The 15 reports that the media “Mission” has found demonstrate and identify the problem faced by the emergency services, where it highlights the altercations with vehicles operated by Waymo or Cruise, which intervened during an emergency.

What is worrying in the reports is that these vehicles, as they learn to ride with real traffic, become “aggressive vehicles” with emergency services and delay them in their respective operations. .

One of the particular cases was that a Cruise vehicle did not want to stop despite the fact that the firefighters had warned it that it could not continue, in this situation they had to intervene by breaking one of the windows to stop the vehicle.

Another of the cases cited was that one of the streets was closed because one of the city’s trams had fallen and the autonomous car continued on its way, generating more problems.

One of the most recent incidents was when firefighters had to pull one of the self-driving vehicles away from a truck that had suffered an accident and it took them many minutes to communicate with an operator of the company so they can move the car remotely. . Without a doubt, a problem that in other cases could have been much worse.

On behalf of Cruise’s company, the proposed solution is to call a telephone number, however, this is not a proposal that satisfies the emergency services, because at that time the fire brigade, an ambulance or a policeman It’s loaded enough to waste time calling a call center.

The report by the local media “Mission” is one of those reporting on the inconveniences that have multiplied in recent months.

According to Wired, the San Francisco Transportation Agency has sent a letter to the California Public Business Commission to remove these self-driving taxis or robotaxis from circulation because it believes they are not yet ready to operate.

Among the most notable cases, it is said that in December of last year the police were alerted by Cruise to go and check an autonomous taxi, since the passenger gave no sign of life. However, when officers arrived, they realized the people inside were taking a nap.

However, the trickiest thing happened with the firefighters, since the aforementioned vehicles could not recognize a hose crossing the street and with which they were extinguishing a fire.

In one case, the robotaxi collided with the pipe, knocking firefighters to the ground, and in another case, it rolled over the pipe.