The political circus is in town.
General Motors has cut by 50% the number of Cruise fully autonomous vehicles (aka robotaxis) were involved in two crashes – alarmingly one with a responding fire truck – late last week in San Francisco. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) told GM to do so. Cruise is the fifth company to receive a driverless testing permit in the state. Currently, 60 companies have an active permit to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver.
“First and foremost, our primary concern remains with our passenger and their well-being. We have been in contact to offer support and will remain in touch. In terms of what occurred around the scene of the collision there are many aspects that looked typical from the AV’s perspective and several factors that added complexity to this specific incident,” Greg Dietrerich Cruise General Manager, San Francisco Market said on 18 August.
“The AV positively identified the emergency vehicle almost immediately as it came into view, which is consistent with our underlying safety design and expectation. It is worth noting, however, that the confines of this specific intersection make visual identification more challenging – for humans and AVs alike – as it is significantly occluded by buildings, meaning that it is not possible to see objects around the corner until they are physically very close to the intersection,” Dietrerich said in a blog post.
In a stunning example of how bad timing can affect what’s left of civilized discourse in politics, California regulators two weeks ago officially approved Cruise and Waymo to charge money for robotaxi trips in San Francisco at any time of day. Before this, Cruise was approved to offer passenger service from robotaxis from 10 pm to 6 am, when traffic congestion, which is an ongoing challenge to autonomous vehicle operating software, is smallest. AV technology clearly remains problematic even as all automakers a rushing to implement it. Now the political circus is well underway. *
While Cruise has had state authority to test autonomous vehicles with safety drivers since 2015, the new permit allows the company to test five autonomous vehicles without a driver behind the wheel on specified streets within San Francisco. The vehicles are designed to operate on roads with posted speed limits not exceeding 30 miles per hour, during all times of the day and night, but will not test during heavy fog or heavy rain.
Under state law established in 2012, the DMV is required to adopt regulations covering both the testing and public use of autonomous vehicles on California roadways. Regulations to allow testing with a safety driver behind the wheel took effect on Sept. 16, 2014. Rules to allow testing without a driver and deployment of autonomous vehicles were subsequently adopted and took effect on April 2, 2018. Regulations allowing for light-duty autonomous delivery vehicles weighing less than 10,001 pounds were approved on Dec. 16, 2019.
In order to receive a driverless testing permit, manufacturers must certify they meet a number of safety, insurance and vehicle registration requirements, including:
- Providing evidence of insurance or a bond equal to $5 million.
- Verifying vehicles are capable of operating without a driver, meet federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards or have an exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and is a SAE Level 4 or 5 vehicle.
- Confirming vehicles have been tested under controlled conditions that simulate the planned area of operation.
- Notifying local governments of planned testing in the area.
- Developing a Law Enforcement Interaction Plan that provides information to law enforcement and other first responders on how to interact with test vehicles.
- Continuously monitoring the status of test vehicles.
- Training remote operators on the technology being tested.
Driverless testing permit holders must also report to the DMV any collisions involving a driverless test vehicle within 10 days and submit an annual report of disengagements.
Ironically, on 2 July Cruise implemented The latest software t to the driverless fleet, containing improvements in these areas:
- Shipped VehicleMTLv3.1 which reduces false positive detections for active EMVs by an additional 91% (increasing miles/FP EMV RA call by 45%) and reduces false positive detections for School Buses by 14%, reducing unnecessary stops and slowdowns.
- Shipped KSE Vehicles v17 and KSE VRU v16, which improve speed estimations on high-speed vehicles by 10% and on animals by 8.6%
- Shipped STA-V v26 that further improves the AV’s response to more challenging scenarios where other drivers blow through intersections illegally at high speeds. [ This was the other recent Cruise accident – AutoCrat]
- Shipped TSEL v17 that improves politeness and increases cautiousness around pedestrians in crosswalks by up to 90% in certain situations. TSEL v17 also makes the AV more cautious around bikes by biasing away from them in a more naturalistic way.
- Shipped improvements making the AV more cautious around construction zones.
[Cruise statistics measuring the percentage of improvement are based on internal Cruise benchmarks and metrics.]
More Dietrerich blog post
“The AV’s ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle’s path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light. Cruise AVs have the ability to detect emergency sirens, which increase their ability to operate safely around emergency vehicles and accompanying scenes. In this instance, the AV identified the siren as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise. The Cruise AV did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision.
“During the course of more than 3 million miles of fully autonomous driving in San Francisco we’ve seen an enormous number of emergency vehicles – more than 168,000 interactions just in the first 7 months of this year alone. Our first responders are trying to balance keeping all of us safe while quickly responding to emergency scenes and we’re grateful for their work and dedication.
“We realize that we’ll always encounter challenging situations, which is why continuous improvement is central to our work. We will continue to work in partnership with regulators and city departments on EMV interactions to reduce the likelihood of incidents like these happening again,” Dietrerich said.
* San Francisco officials, led by City Attorney David Chiu, have filed an administrative motion with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to pause the CPUC’s decision to allow the expansion of autonomous vehicles (AVs) for commercial use in San Francisco with no limitations on geographic area, service hours, or fleet size.
The motion seeks to stay the implementation of the CPUC’s August 10 resolutions granting AV companies, Cruise and Waymo, the ability to immediately expand their commercial AV fleets without restriction. San Francisco is seeking a stay while it pursues rehearing of the CPUC decision.
“Over the last year, there have been numerous reports of poor AV performance creating safety hazards and interfering with first responder operations, public transit, street construction workers, and the flow of traffic. Both Cruise and Waymo have publicly stated plans to dramatically increase the number of AVs available for commercial use following the CPUC’s decision. This uptick will inevitably lead to an increase in traffic congestion and the number of dangerous incidents.
“As legally required, San Francisco’s motion establishes that the balance of harms weighs in favor of San Francisco and the public. It also explains that San Francisco would be likely to win when it seeks rehearing because the CPUC abused its discretion by failing to tie approval to AV performance that would address and improve admitted public safety hazards and because the CPUC failed to consider the environmental impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act of several thousand additional AVs operating on San Francisco streets.
“When deploying powerful, new technology, safety should be the top priority,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “We have seen that this technology is not yet ready, and poor AV performance has interfered with the life-saving operations of first responders. San Francisco will suffer serious harms from this unfettered expansion, which outweigh whatever impacts AV companies may experience from a minimal pause in commercial deployment. The City is simply requesting the CPUC preserve the status quo while it seeks rehearing.”
“San Francisco seeks an immediate stay of the CPUC’s approval of unrestricted driverless AV passenger services in our city. The risks and impacts of this decision should not continue to be borne by our residents and visitors while we seek redress from the Commission’s misguided action,” said Aaron Peskin, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
“The decision permits industry expansion without solving any of the underlying problems,” said San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson.
“We do not believe the industry has any incentive to remain at the table and solve their problems. These incidents with Public Safety are not going away and are in fact increasing.”
The motions to stay can be found here and here. [San Francisco expects to file an application for rehearing with the CPUC in the coming weeks. – let the political circus begin – AutoCrat.]
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Circus Time – Cruise AV Collision with San Francisco Fire Truck
The political circus is in town.
General Motors has cut by 50% the number of Cruise fully autonomous vehicles (aka robotaxis) were involved in two crashes – alarmingly one with a responding fire truck – late last week in San Francisco. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) told GM to do so. Cruise is the fifth company to receive a driverless testing permit in the state. Currently, 60 companies have an active permit to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver.
“First and foremost, our primary concern remains with our passenger and their well-being. We have been in contact to offer support and will remain in touch. In terms of what occurred around the scene of the collision there are many aspects that looked typical from the AV’s perspective and several factors that added complexity to this specific incident,” Greg Dietrerich Cruise General Manager, San Francisco Market said on 18 August.
“The AV positively identified the emergency vehicle almost immediately as it came into view, which is consistent with our underlying safety design and expectation. It is worth noting, however, that the confines of this specific intersection make visual identification more challenging – for humans and AVs alike – as it is significantly occluded by buildings, meaning that it is not possible to see objects around the corner until they are physically very close to the intersection,” Dietrerich said in a blog post.
In a stunning example of how bad timing can affect what’s left of civilized discourse in politics, California regulators two weeks ago officially approved Cruise and Waymo to charge money for robotaxi trips in San Francisco at any time of day. Before this, Cruise was approved to offer passenger service from robotaxis from 10 pm to 6 am, when traffic congestion, which is an ongoing challenge to autonomous vehicle operating software, is smallest. AV technology clearly remains problematic even as all automakers a rushing to implement it. Now the political circus is well underway. *
While Cruise has had state authority to test autonomous vehicles with safety drivers since 2015, the new permit allows the company to test five autonomous vehicles without a driver behind the wheel on specified streets within San Francisco. The vehicles are designed to operate on roads with posted speed limits not exceeding 30 miles per hour, during all times of the day and night, but will not test during heavy fog or heavy rain.
Under state law established in 2012, the DMV is required to adopt regulations covering both the testing and public use of autonomous vehicles on California roadways. Regulations to allow testing with a safety driver behind the wheel took effect on Sept. 16, 2014. Rules to allow testing without a driver and deployment of autonomous vehicles were subsequently adopted and took effect on April 2, 2018. Regulations allowing for light-duty autonomous delivery vehicles weighing less than 10,001 pounds were approved on Dec. 16, 2019.
In order to receive a driverless testing permit, manufacturers must certify they meet a number of safety, insurance and vehicle registration requirements, including:
Driverless testing permit holders must also report to the DMV any collisions involving a driverless test vehicle within 10 days and submit an annual report of disengagements.
Ironically, on 2 July Cruise implemented The latest software t to the driverless fleet, containing improvements in these areas:
[Cruise statistics measuring the percentage of improvement are based on internal Cruise benchmarks and metrics.]
More Dietrerich blog post
“The AV’s ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle’s path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light. Cruise AVs have the ability to detect emergency sirens, which increase their ability to operate safely around emergency vehicles and accompanying scenes. In this instance, the AV identified the siren as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise. The Cruise AV did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision.
“During the course of more than 3 million miles of fully autonomous driving in San Francisco we’ve seen an enormous number of emergency vehicles – more than 168,000 interactions just in the first 7 months of this year alone. Our first responders are trying to balance keeping all of us safe while quickly responding to emergency scenes and we’re grateful for their work and dedication.
“We realize that we’ll always encounter challenging situations, which is why continuous improvement is central to our work. We will continue to work in partnership with regulators and city departments on EMV interactions to reduce the likelihood of incidents like these happening again,” Dietrerich said.
* San Francisco officials, led by City Attorney David Chiu, have filed an administrative motion with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to pause the CPUC’s decision to allow the expansion of autonomous vehicles (AVs) for commercial use in San Francisco with no limitations on geographic area, service hours, or fleet size.
The motion seeks to stay the implementation of the CPUC’s August 10 resolutions granting AV companies, Cruise and Waymo, the ability to immediately expand their commercial AV fleets without restriction. San Francisco is seeking a stay while it pursues rehearing of the CPUC decision.
“Over the last year, there have been numerous reports of poor AV performance creating safety hazards and interfering with first responder operations, public transit, street construction workers, and the flow of traffic. Both Cruise and Waymo have publicly stated plans to dramatically increase the number of AVs available for commercial use following the CPUC’s decision. This uptick will inevitably lead to an increase in traffic congestion and the number of dangerous incidents.
“As legally required, San Francisco’s motion establishes that the balance of harms weighs in favor of San Francisco and the public. It also explains that San Francisco would be likely to win when it seeks rehearing because the CPUC abused its discretion by failing to tie approval to AV performance that would address and improve admitted public safety hazards and because the CPUC failed to consider the environmental impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act of several thousand additional AVs operating on San Francisco streets.
“When deploying powerful, new technology, safety should be the top priority,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “We have seen that this technology is not yet ready, and poor AV performance has interfered with the life-saving operations of first responders. San Francisco will suffer serious harms from this unfettered expansion, which outweigh whatever impacts AV companies may experience from a minimal pause in commercial deployment. The City is simply requesting the CPUC preserve the status quo while it seeks rehearing.”
“San Francisco seeks an immediate stay of the CPUC’s approval of unrestricted driverless AV passenger services in our city. The risks and impacts of this decision should not continue to be borne by our residents and visitors while we seek redress from the Commission’s misguided action,” said Aaron Peskin, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
“The decision permits industry expansion without solving any of the underlying problems,” said San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson.
“We do not believe the industry has any incentive to remain at the table and solve their problems. These incidents with Public Safety are not going away and are in fact increasing.”
The motions to stay can be found here and here. [San Francisco expects to file an application for rehearing with the CPUC in the coming weeks. – let the political circus begin – AutoCrat.]
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