Now here's a genuine novelty: In San Francisco, a motorcycle cop pulled over an autonomous vehicle and issued it a ticket. The future has arrived. But the reason — police said it failed to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk — probably shouldn't be taken lightly, coming a day after a self-driving car operated by Uber Technologies Inc. struck and killed a woman walking her bicycle across the road March 18 in Tempe, Ariz. Cruise Automation, the operator of the ticketed self-driving car, says the vehicle did nothing wrong. The story was first reported by CBS affiliate KPIX-TV. Cruise tells the station that its onboard data shows the pedestrian was 10.8 feet away from the car when it began driving in autonomous mode down Harrison Street at 14th Street. The officer pulled the car over shortly after it began accelerating and ticketed the human test driver. "Safety is our priority in testing our self-driving vehicles," Cruise said in a statement. "California law requires the … [Read more...] about Motorcycle cop tickets a self-driving car in San Francisco
Self driving car laws
A Cruise Self-Driving Car Got A Traffic Ticket In San Francisco A Week After The Deadly Uber Crash (Updated)
Just a week after the deadly Uber crash in Arizona, a self-driving car in San Francisco was ticketed for being too close to a pedestrian, according to KPIX, with a witness capturing a photo of the scene. Cruise, for its part, denies the car was doing anything unsafe, and said it has data to prove it. Cruise did not immediately return a request for comment from Jalopnik, but according to the version of events it gave KPIX, it says it was a little more than 10 feet away from the pedestrian before the car was ticketed. The car was in self-driving mode until it got pulled over. Here’s KPIX: A witness, Kevin O’Connor, snapped a photo after seeing the motorcycle officer pull over the self-driving car as O’Connor drove through the South of Market area last week. “There was another car stopped alongside and he looked a little befuddled,” said O’Connor. “The cop was just writing a regular ticket like they always do.” According to data collected … [Read more...] about A Cruise Self-Driving Car Got A Traffic Ticket In San Francisco A Week After The Deadly Uber Crash (Updated)
Waymo accepts $245m settlement in Uber self-driving car lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO - Uber Technologies Inc will pay $245 million worth of its own shares to Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving vehicle unit to settle a legal dispute over trade secrets, allowing Uber's new chief executive to move past one of the company's most bruising public controversies.The settlement was announced on Friday just before the fifth day of testimony was about to begin at a jury trial in San Francisco federal court.Waymo sued Uber last year, saying that one of its former engineers who became chief of Uber's self-driving car project took with him thousands of confidential documents.The lawsuit cost Uber precious time in its self-driving car ambitions, a key to its long-term profitability. Uber fired its self-driving chief after Waymo sued, and it is well behind on its plans to deploy fleets of autonomous cars in one of the most lucrative races in Silicon Valley.The settlement now allows Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to put another scandal behind the company and move ahead with … [Read more...] about Waymo accepts $245m settlement in Uber self-driving car lawsuit
One self-driving car program far exceeds the others at … self-driving
SAN FRANCISCO — Waymo, the self-driving arm of Google parent company Alphabet, is way out ahead of rivals based on a key measure of autonomous driving performance — how rarely a human has to take over control. This according to a report released on Wednesday by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.California requires automakers, technology companies and startups that test their self-driving vehicles on public roads to provide an annual compilation of miles traveled in autonomous mode and the number of "disengagements." Disengagements occur when the self-driving system is deactivated with control handed back to humans because of a system failure or a traffic, weather or road situation that required human intervention.The metric is one way to measure the reliability of any self-driving system, although regulators have not yet determined how safe autonomous vehicles must be before they are introduced in large numbers, a timeframe that could be a decade or more away.The … [Read more...] about One self-driving car program far exceeds the others at … self-driving
Google ’self-driving car that least needs a human,’ and the answer is …
SAN FRANCISCO — Waymo, the self-driving arm of Google parent company Alphabet, is way out ahead of rivals based on a key measure of autonomous driving performance — how rarely a human has to take over control. This according to a report released on Wednesday by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.California requires automakers, technology companies and startups that test their self-driving vehicles on public roads to provide an annual compilation of miles traveled in autonomous mode and the number of "disengagements." Disengagements occur when the self-driving system is deactivated with control handed back to humans because of a system failure or a traffic, weather or road situation that required human intervention.The metric is one way to measure the reliability of any self-driving system, although regulators have not yet determined how safe autonomous vehicles must be before they are introduced in large numbers, a timeframe that could be a decade or more away.The … [Read more...] about Google ’self-driving car that least needs a human,’ and the answer is …