Self-driving cars without safety drivers behind the wheel have flooded San Francisco streets. In August, two of the leading autonomous vehicle companies, General Motors-owned Cruise and Alphabet-owned Waymo, were granted permission to expand operations, allowing people to hail a driverless car like an Uber. But the launch has been plagued with issues. In October, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s permit to operate the company’s driverless fleet in the state, citing an incident in which a Cruise vehicle dragged a pedestrian for 20 feet after a collision. Cruise had been quickly expanding to other cities including Phoenix, Austin, Dallas, Houston and Miami, but the company paused driverless operations nationwide following the California suspension. Waymo is still operating robotaxis in San Francisco.
Before Cruise’s permit was revoked, CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa took a ride in one of its autonomous vehicles. She also gave Waymo a try and gives a comparison of the two very different rides. She also sat down with San Francisco city officials and Kyle Vogt, CEO of Cruise, to explore how the launch of robotaxis has been going for the city and what’s next.
Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
03:30 — Robotaxis go driverless
09:10 — A rocky start
17:70 — Future expansion
Produced, shot and edited by: Andrew Evers
Reporter: Deirdre Bosa
Senior Field Producer: Laura Batchelor
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Additional camera: Sydney Boyo, Katie Brigham, Marc Ganley
Additional footage: Cruise, Waymo, Aurora, Zoox, Getty Images, NBC News
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San Francisco Is Teeming With Self-Driving Cars And It’s A Mess
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The SF Fire official looks exactly how Id expect her to look
these cars are better suited for stock car racing on the figure 8 tracks
Now look at the heap of sensors on and they still have trouble. Tell me how Tesla is supposed to do better with a bunch of cheap cameras.
USUAL SUSPECT COMITTING ASSAULT
Oooooo
Fair weather transport? I can't see AV having much future in any city that gets winter weather.
One million driverless miles is all very well, but I think it's the weird or unusual situations that need to be addressed, like the collision with the pedestrian for example. Immediately pulling over to the side of the road may not always be the answer. Also, it sounds like Cruise is putting their bottom-line before ALL else … as long as they can start actually making a profit, then as far as they're concerned, there are NO problems =)
Lady, youre in the TL. Youd experience that even in a regular car
Why don't they build self driving trains and subways?
WAYMO RULES!!! Welcome to the future!
At the rate of climate change human beings won’t be able to tie their own shoes due to being so exhausted from resistance that they’ll need all the AI assistance in the world to survive. 100% that’s a guarantee.
Do they take the AUSTIN FREEWAY BRIDGES
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No Human driving. A GHOST
Waymo is absolutely awesome in SF. I also bike a lot & feel way safer around a Waymo than an impatient, distracted or annoyed SF commuter. Go SF!
How are homeless in SF? I'm more worried about homeless than Waymo. GO WAYMO!
One of the basic problems we KNOW will exist here is that humans will be more comfortable with thousands of accidents and deaths caused by human drivers than we will be with robo taxi's killing ten people… It's human nature and our illogical path continues…
The machines have become self-aware.
I only see Cruise vehicles causing problems. Waymo is far superior.
looks like someone pay cnbc to make a good promotion
I can’t imagine acting like that in public. An adult temper tantrum. Can you imagine how he acts at home to the people he knows? Whats the first thing that comes to your mind as to why he finds it okay and natural to act like this?
Only one reason to have a robotaxi. Not paying a driver.
Ban driverless cars!
U not wearing a seat belt, is this right.
lots of bad human drivers out there. remember to wear your seatbelt even inside a self-driving car.
So what are the benefits for the customer? cheaper?
If I were an entrepreneur and needed minimal staff, this would obviously be gold. But just because the technology exists, doesn't it mean that everyone wants it?
now i get why people were spray painting these pieces of crap … its crazy how they would allow the public be the crash test dummies to ride in these things that are clearly verry dangerous and non functioning.
There is something that people miss with the difference of intelligence between designing cars and this self driving stuff. In F-1 racing for example the engineers have to do a lot of work in designing the cockpit and controls for the driver. They have to think about driver performance and feedback. So part of the design is the transfer of information do the driver and the ability of the driver to send feedback to the car. For example if I'm designing bicycles the weight and shape of the bicycle can effect my ability to balance. More mass for example can stabilize the bicycle but also maybe make it less agile if I'm using it to descend a mountain. That's the hard part of engineering because you have to make people want your product and you have to think about that in detail. It's not taxes where people have to do it. People don't understand that. It's really hard math. People think filling out forms is math, and that's not math. That's not the math that tons of people fail at or what you have to learn to apply in engineering. They're not necessarily creating a product that people want. It's the same as the walk-able cities. Do people want to walk there? is it the streets of paris where impressionist painters want to go to paint the scenery? It's not the trail of tears. You're not selling walking or driving with a city street. You're selling wanting to be there.
An example is the super windy road in San Francisco. That's crappy road but people want to drive on it. If self driving cars were a better product than that road would also be a straight road.
We need self-driving cars in the medical field electric
We need self-driving cars in the medical field
Nice step into the future, how do you know which taxi is yours when multiple people called for a ride from your location? Does it flash your name on the dash and/or require a spoken access code when you enter for the ride. Good evening Mr Smith, what is your code.
People will have no jobs… this really does not make sense.. automation should be helping and not replacing..
the future will have great tecnology and terrible terrible people. A random dude starts kicking the car for no reason… So many cities and states of the US are basically a zombie movie. Nobody adressing any of those issues at all
I need my cruise back, that trial was good for bar hopping downtown austin. still better driving than most of the people here even with all the glitches!!
San Francisco corrupt politicians taking campaign donations will always always allow their corporate donors in this case likely Waymo and Cruise to get away with whatever they want on the road. Just imagine all those Uber drivers, taxis and delivery drivers (real people with families) that are going to loose their jobs. 😂
Just imagine you talk out against a politician, you're in one of those vehicles the doors look and it drives you off a cliff. It just goes down as another freak accident. 😆
0:50 Of is a black person 🤦🏾♂️
no it's not a mess – clickbait article
I saw a Waymo car block the road unnecessarily when I visited San Francisco this summer, blocking the path of a bus. Driver had to honk a few times before it moved out of the way. I would think that robotaxis are unnecessary considering how much work and money is being put into those robotaxis.
This is why u cant trust them. U need a Driver in the Driver Seat at all Times.
No, what you Meant to say is "San Francisco is a Mess."
Road raging at a driverless car is insane 😅
The future is here. What's the progress? We will finally manage to make all taxi drivers unemployed. Hallelujah!
These autonomous vehicles seem to be god’s gift to liability attorneys. Talk about deep pockets. GM and alphabet.
Start writing traffic tickets that the companies have to pay. Develop robocops to write tickets to robocars.