San Francisco Is Teeming With Self-Driving Cars And It’s A Mess

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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Before Cruise’s permit was revoked, CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa took a ride in one of its autonomous vehicles.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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21 Comments

  1. I think vision is either lacking in the possibilities or those behind this propaganda see exactly what's coming and it doesn't include them. . I see a future where car ownership goes the way of the dvd. Most will not own any because car transportation like movies via netflix, prime etc will be brought by subscription that allow not only those able to obtain a drivers license but also the death, blind, amputees, epilepsy sufferers and many more people who suffer illness and disabilities that are currently deprived in the unaided use of the car etc. And I predict that although everyone from young teens to the oldest person will be able to take advantage of this as well, thus more car users than ever the number of cars on the road will reduce dramatically. Train, tram, tube and monorail will more than likely become redundant apart from areas that are pedestrianised. Car parks will probably not exist. Why? You ask? Because every car required will be on the road. No more no less. Passenger one needs to be at oxford street for 10 am and the driverless car gets him there. As it drops him at 10 am passenger two also on oxford street needs to start his journey at to get to his destination for 10.30. the same car will pick him up and maybe each of those passengers share the ride with multiple others on journey route. Result? I'm not a mathematician but I could easily see 100 people or more completing their journey using just one car in say an hour. So taking 99 cars off the road. That's not tomorrow but its soon. And when all vehicles are connected no road light needed, or give way signs or any road marking as each car will know where the other is and what its doing and they will work like a flock of birds, the only time they will stop is to drop and pick up passengers or goods. Mobile phones, watches, etc will locate people as well as sensors in vehicle and for those that don't have a device on them, smart surveillance will pin point every pedestrian and send this data to every other device on the planet. The world will more like the clockwork of a clock that never needs winding. No longer will you wait hours at the airport. A system of driverless pods will be designed to pick up airline passengers from one to the whole plane. Every passenger is getting on the same plane regardless of where you live. At the moment we stumble our way their in whatever primitive way suits our budget. If we are lucky we can afford a taxi or uber even if that leaves 3 spare seats plus emissions on that vehicle returning home or to next client. With maybe a very tired driver, who has an accident (those stats would be interesting). But my vision the future will be as i say and that is, each passenger or passengers picked up from home and they will all converge on route to form a linked convey similar to a caterpillar that will then drive directly to your plane that is sitting in position on the runway ready to take off. and as soon as your linked, off you go, flying high. The pods will enclose you individually or as a group, whatever you book. If the plane is in trouble and likely to crash, every passenger will survive. As these pods will open a parachute over land and land safely due to gps and thrusters and float over water and again with gps and power get you to the safest nearest place. Your seat will double as a toilet, your personal toilet, so more hygenic. If a virus threatens us all pods will become single. Refreshments etc will still be served somehow. And when you land, the pods will take you to your destination, self cleanse then pick up the next load. Less transport, less fuel, less waste, less disease, No queue, moor time. 100 pods = 100 life support systems, 1 aeroplane = 10s life support system. If one of the planes systems goes down……….. If I pod goes down = 99 for support. The fire brigade will fight and fight against all of this as when every vehicle linked they will have no RTA's to attend and when every building has tech so fires and explosions etc are another thing of yesterday, no work their either. What will it leave? getting cats from tree's? probably not, there will be a drone for that. A rant I know, but if we live another at the most another 50 years we will see it but more likely within a decade or so for cars. Other thing that will hold back progression will be insurance companies. No accidents, no claims, no need for them. So until they get lets say a deal done to insure the unknown through its transition that will be so high the companies pioneering this will haver to take credit out for 500 years with interest to cover what they know is coming and cover there losses with inflation for that time. Once they have that the transformation will happen faster the horse to car. MARK MY WORDS.

  2. This technology makes way more sense for long distance trucking rather than short taxi rides. Most of these cars are empty, most of the time wasting a lot of energy to essentially to move nothing around. This will mean the total number of people transported by automobiles is less than 1.

  3. 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 =)

  4. 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.

  5. 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😢😢😢😢😢😂❤😂🎉🎉❤😂🎉🎉🎉🎉😢😢😮😮😅😅😊😊😊😅😅😮😮😮😢😢🎉🎉😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🎉😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

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