By Sean Mueck
San Francisco recently filed a lawsuit against California, after the state controversially allowed Waymo self-driving taxis to expand their operations, permitting them to run 24/7 robotaxis across the city.
This is the most hostile of San Francisco’s attempts to rid the streets of self-driving vehicles, which the city claims cause numerous safety concerns for citizens and interfere with first responders.
The lawsuit, which was filed by City Attorney David Chiu, appeared in court on December 11th, in California’s first district court of appeals.
Waymo, which is headquartered in Mountain View, is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. The Jaguar I-Pace is the most recent addition to Waymo’s fleet of vehicles. They are equipped with multiple sensors and a 360-degree lidar scanner to detect potential objects.
San Francisco, which has recently become the de facto home for self-driving cars, has already had conflict before. General Motors’s Cruise is another self-driving company piloting vehicles in San Francisco and recently had their license revoked after a Cruise vehicle pinned a pedestrian under the car and dragged them 20 feet on the ground close to Union Square last October.
Both Waymo and Cruise state that their technology is safer than human drivers and maintains a better track record. Despite the claims, many incidents have brought the company’s reliability into question.
The city claims that self-driving vehicles have endangered residents’ safety and is asking the CUPC to review their decision and check if it complies with the law.
beniciapaw.com 