SAN FRANCISCO — In the latest setback for General Motors-owned Cruise, the driverless-car company issued a voluntary recall of 950 of its vehicles nationwide after a horrific crash here last month and signaled layoffs could be coming.

The latest developments come after one of Cruise’s self-driving cars failed to detect a pedestrian pinned underneath its vehicle and dragged her for about 20 feet, causing serious injuries.

Cruise issued the recall Tuesday to correct the programming in its entire driverless fleet, saying it will address a “post-collision response” that “could increase the risk of injury.” The company already grounded its entire driverless fleet across the country last month after the pedestrian accident. One of Cruise’s driverless cars dragged the pedestrian, and the company initially misrepresented what happened during the Oct. 2 crash.

In a filing to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announcing the recall Tuesday, Cruise said the software update will address its “Collision Detection Subsystem” to better determine whether it should stay in place after a crash or move out of traffic, depending on the nature of the incident. Unlike a traditional recall that typically involves hardware, recalls such as this one for autonomous vehicles come in the form of software updates.

“Cruise has developed a software update that remedies the issue” that caused it to drag the pedestrian on Oct. 2, it said in the NHTSA filing. “With the new update, the Cruise AV would have remained stationary during the October 2 incident.”

Cruise said the update has been issued to its cars that are still operating on the roads with test drivers. The company said it will “deploy the remedy” to its driverless fleet before it resumes driverless operations, although it is unclear when that will be.

At issue is the Oct. 2 crash where a jaywalking pedestrian stepped into a busy intersection in San Francisco and was hit by a human-driven car. The pedestrian rolled onto the windshield for a few moments before she was flung into the path of the driverless car. Footage of the crash initially shared by Cruise with The Washington Post, other media outlets and the California Department of Motor Vehicles showed the driverless car stop as soon as it made contact with the pedestrian.

But, several weeks later, the California DMV revealed that its investigators learned that the car had continued moving for about 20 feet at 7 mph with the woman pinned underneath. That maneuver, the DMV said, likely increased the pedestrian’s injuries. The woman remained in the hospital as of Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for San Francisco’s Department of Public Health.

In its filing to NHTSA announcing the recall, Cruise said of the software flaw that in certain circumstances after a collision has been detected, the system will automatically try to pull the car out of traffic “instead of remaining stationary when a pullover is not the desired post collision response.”

“This issue could occur after a collision with a pedestrian positioned low on the ground in the path of the AV,” the company said.

The California DMV suspended Cruise’s driverless permits last month after investigators determined that the robotaxis posed an “unreasonable risk” to the public in light of the Oct. 2 crash.

In an interview with The Post last month, Cruise chief executive Kyle Vogt said the criticism of driverless cars is overblown and that many of the incidents involving his company have been “sensationalized.” But the hard-charging CEO has changed his tune in recent weeks and has told employees that layoffs are possible as the company tries to rebuild public trust, according to an audio recording of a Nov. 6 meeting obtained by Forbes.

“We are still working through what that means for the company and who’s going to be affected by that, and we don’t have all the answers yet,” he said, according to the recording obtained by Forbes. “But what I can do is commit to providing more details within the next three weeks. So, importantly, that’s not when layoffs would occur for full-time employees; that’s when we’re going to give you an update on what that timeline might be.”

A person familiar with Cruise’s plans confirmed the content of the audio recording.

In a separate blog post Wednesday, the company also outlined steps it says it is taking in the aftermath of the Oct. 2 crash. Those steps include hiring a chief safety officer and engaging an outside law firm to “better understand Cruise’s response to the October 2 incident, including Cruise’s interactions with law enforcement, regulators, and the media.”

“We are dedicated to building a better Cruise, and these initial actions are just some of the steps we’re taking as we listen, learn, and improve,” the company said in the blog post. “We are committed to keeping our customers, regulators, and the public informed throughout this process.”

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Cruise stopped its driverless operations nationwide last week. But the New York Times reports on the company’s moves since then…

– Cruise hired the law firm Quinn Emanuel to investigate its response to a San Francisco incident involving a pedestrian, “including its interactions with regulators, law enforcement and the media.”
– A separate review of the incident is being doncuted by Exponent, a consulting firm that evaluates complex software systems.
– The company’s rivals “fear Cruise’s issues could lead to tougher driverless car rules for all of them.”
– “Cruise employees worry that there is no easy way to fix the company’s problems, said five former and current employees and business partners.”

Company insiders are putting the blame for what went wrong on a tech industry culture — led by 38-year-old [Chief Executive Kyle] Vogt — that put a priority on the speed of the program over safety. In the competition between Cruise and its top driverless car rival, Waymo, Mr. Vogt wanted to dominate in the same way Uber dominated its smaller ride-hailing competitor, Lyft. “Kyle is a guy who is willing to take risks, and he is willing to move quickly. He is very Silicon Valley,” said Matthew Wansley, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York who specializes in emerging automotive technologies. “That both explains the success of Cruise and its mistakes.”

When Mr. Vogt spoke to the company about its suspended operations on Monday, he said that he did not know when they could start again and that layoffs could be coming, according to two employees who attended the companywide meeting. He acknowledged that Cruise had lost the public’s trust, the employees said, and outlined a plan to win it back by being more transparent and putting more emphasis on safety. He named Louise Zhang, vice president of safety, as the company’s interim chief safety officer and said she would report directly to him…

With its business frozen, there are concerns that Cruise is becoming too much of a financial burden on G.M. and is hurting the auto giant’s reputation… The shutdown complicates Cruise’s ambition of hitting its goal of $1 billion of revenue in 2025. G.M. has spent an average of $588 million a quarter on Cruise over the past year, a 42 percent increase from a year ago. Each Chevrolet Bolt that Cruise operates costs $150,000 to $200,000, according to a person familiar with its operations.

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Human Interest

By Taylor Knight

Published
Sep. 23, 2023, 12:24 p.m. ET

He sacrificed a few years of comfort for a lifetime of financial freedom.

Arizona man Nicholas Bauer says he went to extreme lengths to save cash in his 20s, living in cars in order to pay off all his debt.

“When you have no rent and no bills to pay, that money just stacks,” Bauer, 32, declared in the latest episode of “Big Super Living In Arizona.”

In the series, which showcases America’s most affordable housing options, Bauer boasts that he saved up so much cash that he was able to buy a home outright, and is no longer dependent on a job to get by.

Bauer told the program that he started living in cars in 2015 while working as an automotive engineer, making $11.50 per hour. At the time, he says he had racked up extensive debt.

He was determined to find a “solution to the housing crisis,” so he decided to permanently “live a debt-free lifestyle by living in vehicles.”

The creative engineer parked his Dodge Dakota truck, which he had driven since high school, at his workplace’ parking lot and attached a camper to the back.

Arizona man Nicholas Bauer says he went to extreme lengths to save cash in his 20s, living in cars in order to pay off all his debt. Youtube

Bauer now lives in a “compound” on two-acres of land, which he paid for in cash. Youtube

Bauer’s boss allowed the unconventional living conditions on company property since he was often required “to pull all-nighters” and would use the vehicle for off-roading.

Eventually, the self-proclaimed “full-time desert dweller” moved into his next vehicle, a 404 Series Unimog truck. The vehicle’s interior had a bed, wood flooring, a 40-inch flat-screen TV, and internet.

The one thing his humble abode was missing was a bathroom, forcing him to urinate into a Nalgene water bottle. When it came to more serious bathroom business, Bauer planned his toilet breaks at work since he didn’t have one at home.

The scheduled bathroom breaks were enough to convince Bauer to upgrade to another vehicle.

“When you have no rent and no bills to pay, that money just stacks,” Bauer, 32, declared in the latest episode of “Big Super Living In Arizona.” Bauer is seen with one of the vehicles he lived in. Youtube

Bauer moved into “the dragon wagon,” a merger of two military trucks with a 1987 Fleetwood Prowler trailer on the back incorporating solar panels.

He described the vehicle as a “Frankenstein contraption.” However, just like the monster, his truck fell apart during a road trip to San Francisco. While saving money to restore the dragon wagon, he transitioned into a Chevy pickup.

His pickup, parked outside a Planet Fitness lot, operated like a work camper and included a fold-out bed, heater, and CCTV cameras.

When things got serious with Bauer’s girlfriend, who became pregnant with a baby girl, the pair knew it was time to settle down in a more permanent home.Youtube

Bauer lives in a mobile home with his girlfriend and daughter. The modest interior is pictured. Youtube

However, when things got serious with Bauer’s girlfriend, who became pregnant with a baby girl, the pair knew it was time to settle down in a more permanent home.

Now, the family of three lives in a mobile home on Bauer’s two-acre “paid-off compound,” where he also stores all the cars he used to live in. He didn’t disclose how much the property cost, nor how much money he still has left in his bank account.

Although Bauer recently lost his job, he has no worries about providing for his family, especially after years of saving.

Now the 32-year-old lives in a mobile home on his paid off compound.Youtube

“I don’t really have to worry about anything because there’s no rent, there’s no mortgage,” Bauer shared, also adding that he was now debt free.

But the Arizona man hasn’t given up on his love of automobiles.

Even with a more anchored lifestyle, he still has dreams “to live in the woods with 50 trucks.”

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In July “Safe Street Rebels” launched the “Week of Cone” pranks (which went viral on TikTok and Twitter). TechCrunch called it “a bid to raise awareness and invite more pissed-off San Franciscans to submit public comments” to regulatory agencies.

But NPR sees a larger context:

Coning driverless cars fits in line with a long history of protests against the impact of the tech industry on San Francisco. Throughout the years, activists have blockaded Google’s private commuter buses from picking up employees in the city. And when scooter companies flooded the sidewalks with electric scooters, people threw them into San Francisco Bay. “Then there was the burning of Lime scooters in front of a Google bus,” says Manissa Maharawal, an assistant professor at American University who has studied these protests.

She points out that when tech companies test their products in the city, residents don’t have much say in those decisions: “There’s been various iterations of this where it’s like, ‘Oh, yep, let’s try that out in San Francisco again,’ with very little input from anyone who lives here….” Waymo is already giving rides in Phoenix and is testing with human safety drivers in Los Angeles and Austin. And Cruise is offering rides in Phoenix and Austin and testing in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Nashville and Charlotte.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, members of Safe Street Rebel continue to go out at night and stalk the vehicles one cone at a time.
They’re apparently bicycling activists, judging by their web site, advocating “for car-free spaces, transit equity, and the end of car dominance.” (“We regularly protest the city’s thoughtless reopening of the Upper Great Highway to cars by slowing traffic to show just how unnecessary of a route this road is.”) Their long-term goal is to expand the group “to the point where we can make a city for people to safely walk, bike and take public transit, not a city dominated by cars…”
The last half-century has been a failed experiment with car dominance. They bankrupt our cities, ruin our environment, and force working people to sacrifice an unacceptable amount of their income to pay for basic transpiration. It is time to end car dependence and rethink our streets around public transit, walking and bikes.
Their demands include unredacted data from self-driving car companies about safety incidents (and a better reporting system) — plus a mechanism for actually citing robotaxis for traffic violations. But they also raise concerns about surveillance, noting the possibility of “a city-wide, moving network observing and analyzing everything.”

Their web page says they also want to see studies on the pollution impact of self-driving cars — and whether or not AVs will increase car usage. They support the concerns of San Francisco’s Taxi Workers Alliance about the possibility of lost jobs and increased traffic congestion.

And they raise one more concern:

Their cars are not wheelchair accessible and do not pull up to the curb. Profit-driven robotaxi companies see accessibility as an afterthought. Without enforcement, their promises for the future will likely never materialize. Paratransit and transit are accountable to the public, but Cruise and Waymo are only accountable to shareholders.
But their list of concerns is followed by an exhaustive list of 266 robotaxi incidents documented with links to news articles and social media reports. (“The cars have run red lights, rear-ended a bus and blocked crosswalks and bike paths,” writes NPR. “In one incident, dozens of confused cars congregated in a residential cul-de-sac, clogging the street. In another, a Waymo ran over and killed a dog.”)

NPR’s article adds one final note. “Neither Cruise nor Waymo responded to questions about why the cars can be disabled by traffic cones.”

Thanks to Slashdot reader Tony Isaac for sharing the news.

The post Does ‘Coning’ Self-Driving Vehicles Protest Tech Trade Impacts? appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO

This California summer, passersby on the streets of San Francisco can be divided into two camps: Blase locals who are used to a parade of moving cars with no drivers or gobsmacked tourists fumbling for their smartphones to capture this long-promised vision of the future.

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The vehicles in San Francisco are operated by Waymo and General Motors owned Cruise and earlier this summer both operators received permission by a California regulator to operate 24/7 across the city except on freeways.

This made San Francisco the first major city with two fleets of driverless vehicles fully operating that the companies hope will drive their expansion elsewhere across the United States.

Accompanied by AFP, Isaac, a San Francisco resident and stay at home Dad, ordered his first ride on Cruise’s app.

“Percussion,” the vehicle’s name, arrived quickly. But instead of taking the direct route, which would have led to a supermarket in less than five minutes, the trip followed a long, unexplained detour.

“I’m actually impressed. It’s decent at braking. It’s not all psycho about slamming on the brakes and accelerating really quickly,” said Isaac.

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Isaac turned his attention to a quiz on the screen before him.

But he disagreed with the answer about the best burrito in San Francisco. “It’s a good driver but I’m not sure it has good taste in burritos.”

Twenty minutes and a dozen questions later, Percussion finally arrived at its destination, but parked quite far from the store, probably because of the roadworks.

Not that Isaac was discouraged: “It was awesome. I would do it again anytime.”

“It’s very peaceful. There’s no chatter. There’s not a weird radio station playing random music,” he observed.

And if it was the same price as an Uber “I would go for the robot because I’m kind of antisocial.”

Waymo tester Katherine Allen was also sensitive to the social aspect.

“The advantage that they have over human drivers is that they’re cautious, which can be really annoying to other drivers,” she said.

But “there’s not going to be any road rage” from a robotaxi, she added. 

Taking on her role as a tester, Allen gave the emergency “pull over” button a go and the vehicle veered safely to the side as intended.

Resuming the journey proved difficult. Human drivers showed no mercy for a robot wanting to get back in the driving lane.

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So far, most incidents have involved vehicles stopped on the road.

But local authorities have nevertheless asked Cruise to halve its fleet in San Francisco [to 50 cars active during the day and 150 at night], while it investigates two collisions that occurred last week, including one with a fire truck.

Even in this tech-crazed city, robotaxis are a divisive issue.

Environmental activists criticize them for perpetuating the reign of the private car, while associations for the disabled say they are not sufficiently adapted to their needs, and trade unions fear job losses.

But the excitement is there: Waymo says it has

The post New regular: Driverless vehicles cruise the streets of San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

This California summer, passersby on the streets of San Francisco can be divided into two camps: blase locals who are used to a parade of moving cars with no drivers or gobsmacked tourists fumbling for their smartphones to capture this long-promised vision of the future.

Katherine Allen climbs into a white Jaguar, which then pushes out carefully into the traffic in a busy neighborhood crisscrossed by jaywalkers and cyclists.

The 37-year-old lawyer has been voluntarily testing Waymo’s robot cabs since the end of 2021. At first, there was always an employee of this subsidiary of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) on board, there to grab the wheel if needed.

And then one night with very little warning, the car came to her unchaperoned.

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“I was really nervous the first time, but not too nervous that I didn’t want to take it. I was excited too,” she said.

“For the first two thirds of the trip, maybe 20 minutes or so, I was freaking out and then all of a sudden it just sort of felt normal, which is weird, because it wasn’t normal!”

The vehicles in San Francisco are operated by Waymo and General Motors owned Cruise and earlier this summer both operators received permission by a California regulator to operate 24/7 across the city except on freeways.

This made San Francisco the first major city with two fleets of driverless vehicles fully operating that the companies hope will drive their expansion elsewhere across the United States.

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On Tuesday evening, accompanied by AFP, Isaac, a San Francisco resident and stay at home Dad, ordered his first ride on Cruise’s app.

“Percussion,” the vehicle’s name, arrived quickly. But instead of taking the direct route, which would have led to a supermarket in less than five minutes, the trip followed a long, unexplained detour.

“It’s odd to me that the steering wheel even turns… It’s kind of ghostly,” Isaac observed as the car pulled away embarking on the journey.

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“I’m actually impressed. It’s decent at braking. It’s not all psycho about slamming on the brakes and accelerating really quickly,” said Isaac.

Isaac turned his attention to a quiz on the screen before him.

But he disagreed with the answer about the best burrito in San Francisco. “It’s a good driver but I’m not sure it has good taste in burritos.”

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Twenty minutes and a dozen questions later, Percussion finally arrived at its destination, but parked quite far from the store, probably because of the roadworks.

Not that Isaac was discouraged: “It was awesome. I would do it again anytime.”

“It’s very peaceful. There’s no chatter. There’s not a weird radio station playing random music,” he observed.

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And if it was the same price as an Uber “I would go for the robot because I’m kind of antisocial.”

Waymo tester Katherine Allen was also sensitive to the social aspect.

“The advantage that they have over human drivers is that they’re cautious, which can be really annoying to other drivers,” she said.

But “there’s not going to be any road rage” from a robotaxi, she added as her car inched slowly through daytime traffic.

Taking on her role as a tester, Allen gave the emergency “pull over” button a go and the vehicle veered safely to the side as intended.

Resuming the journey proved difficult. Human drivers showed no mercy for a robot wanting to get back in the driving lane.

So far, most incidents have involved vehicles stopped on the road.

But local authorities have nevertheless asked Cruise to halve its fleet in San Francisco (to 50 cars active during the day and 150 at night), while it investigates two collisions that occurred last week, including one with a fire truck.

Even in this tech-crazed city, robotaxis are a divisive issue.

Environmental activists criticize them for perpetuating the reign of the private car, while associations for the disabled say they are not sufficiently adapted to their needs, and trade unions fear job losses.

But just as many see driverless cars as beneficial to these causes.

And the excitement is there: Waymo says it has more than 100,000 people on its waiting list.

Allen, who until now had enjoyed her rides for free, will have to pay in the future. Will she continue to use Waymo or go with a human driven Uber?

“It will depend on price and time… autonomous cars are almost always slower,” she said.

The post From Wow To New Regular: Driverless Vehicles Cruise The Streets Of San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Ask a rabbi about self-driving cars and you’d better be ready for a long answer.

Self-driving cars — also known as robotaxis, autonomous vehicles or driverless cars — with their whirring sensors and their odd, almost tentative movements, have become a familiar sight on the streets of San Francisco.

Familiar they might be, but not without controversy. With local incidents of self-driving cars trying to drive into active fire zones, stalling en masse and even crashing into a fire truck this month, reports of autonomous misconduct have been plentiful. Regardless, the California Public Utilities Commission in mid-August expanded commercial robotaxi service to daytime hours in San Francisco for GM’s Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous vehicle divisions. City officials are opposed to the expansion, citing safety and other concerns.

And yet the all-electric fleets offer intriguing Shabbat possibilities — not least for observant Jews who traditionally refrain from driving and using electricity on the day. So what do local rabbis say?

“As an Orthodox Jew, in order to evaluate new realities, they are going to try and understand how they work and categorize them within already existing precedent in Jewish law,” said Rabbi Joel Landau of Adath Israel, an Orthodox synagogue in San Francisco.

There is one existing piece of technology that might offer a clue, he said. It’s the Shabbat elevator, which automatically stops and opens its doors at each floor, negating the need to press a button. 

It may seem that an autonomous vehicle, if pre-programmed, could possibly meet the same requirements as a Shabbat elevator. But Landau said it’s not that simple.

“Not everyone is happy with a Shabbat elevator,” he said.  

Many elevators make adjustments based on the weight of the passenger, he said, which negates their neutrality, so to speak. By contrast, a running escalator or moving walkway might be OK.

If self-driving cars react to a passenger’s weight or position, that alone might rule them out for Shabbat use among observant Jews. The same is true if riders would need to activate anything to start the ride. Landau said he’s sure the technological know-how to make a Shabbat-compliant autonomous electric car could be developed. He’s just not sure it should be.

The issue of driving on Shabbat was addressed in the Conservative movement back in the 1950s when rabbis allowed driving to synagogue for services as Jews moved into the suburbs and lived too far from shul to walk. Still, the movement does not encourage driving on Shabbat.

“The ideal is that one does not drive on Shabbat and that people live close by to their Jewish communities — to walk to synagogue, share meals, raise families,” Rabbi Amanda Russell of Congregation Beth Sholom, a Conservative synagogue in San Francisco, wrote in an email to J.

But not everyone can reach that ideal, she said. “We know that to be in community on Shabbat, many people have to drive.” 

But what about self-driving robotaxis? Would they be better than driving?

“Funny you should ask about this,” Russell said. “These cars have become a small topic of conversation at Beth Sholom, simply because they are taking up precious parking spots in the early morning for daily minyan and on Shabbat!”

Annoyance aside, Russell said the question comes down to the way the cars operate, what they are used for and whether they undermine the spirit of Shabbat. If “pre-arranged and prepaid,” she said, self-driving cars could be “more ideal” on Shabbat than someone driving even an electric car.

So how do self-driving cars really work? Could they really be Shabbat-compliant?

To put it simply, an autonomous car is equipped with an array of sensors and imaging devices, including cameras and LIDAR, which is the spinning device atop the cars that uses light to measure distance. While GPS helps the car map its route, it’s all those sensors that help the car navigate a chaotic street environment.

Right now, riders access the cars through apps on their phones, but pre-arranging a robotaxi pickup is possible. 

“To make it permissible, one would want to make the arrangements before Shabbat: pickup and drop-off locations, payment, etc.” Russell said. “That would prevent the passenger from having to use their phone, any ride-share-related technology and any form of money, all of which are prohibited on Shabbat.”

Russell and Landau both said that focusing on keeping the spirit of Shabbat is a crucial guide. Landau said that even if self-driving cars can technically be used — an assumption that hasn’t been truly tested yet — he doesn’t believe that most observant Jews will tap on the Waymo app a few minutes before sundown on Friday.

“Not everything you could do, you should do,” Landau said. 

The post Are self-driving automobiles kosher? San Francisco rabbis weigh in as robotaxis flood the town’s streets appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

News

By Marjorie Hernandez

August 17, 2023 | 5:43pm

Brazen bay-area burglars were filmed making a series of smash-and-grabs from a line of parked cars in broad daylight — with no sign of any police response.

Completely unbothered by bystanders, the Lexus-driving criminals went along the line of cars near San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Warf smashing windows and pillaging the contents before moving onto the next, as captured on video by a reporter from local TV station KTVU.

One of the vehicles targeted by the burglars even had a person sitting in the back, but he still snatched the victim’s bag before taking off.

“It’s called ‘bipping and boosting,’” San Francisco Police Lt.Tracy McCray told The Post, referring to the slang term for the smash and grab incidents which are plaguing the Bay Area.

“It really exploded during the pandemic so much so that someone told me that the sidewalks are glistening and sparkling [with glass from windows] where cars are broken into left and right.

Wild video from a user submitted to KTVU shows thieves breaking into car after car in San Francisco. The crime is called bipping and it is plaguing the city. via KTVU

The crime is called bipping and it is plaguing the city. via KTVU

“The infuriating part is the brazenness of it has gotten off the chain. They don’t even try to hide what they are doing anymore.”

Day-time vehicle break-ins have become so common in San Francisco neighborhoods such as the Alamo Square and Japantown that Supervisor Dean Preston called for a hearing to address the city’s bipping epidemic, according to the San Francisco Standard.

Preston, who has voted in the past against law enforcement-based policies, said San Francisco city officials have made “no progress” on the persistent break-ins.

“Residents continue to deal with broken car windows, stolen possessions, and shattered glass on the streets and sidewalks, while visitors are left with trauma, financial loss, and less-than-ideal memories of their visits,” Preston said in a statement.

The brazen thief peers through a car window to see what’s worth stealing via KTVU

The man then smashes another car window and grabs a backpack via KTVU

San Francisco had nearly 1,670 car break-ins in the past 30 days, according to the latest data tracked by the San Francisco Police Department. There has been nearly 10,000 thefts from vehicles in the city so far this year.

Tourist areas such as the North Beach Neighborhood, Japantown and Presidio are the San Francisco neighborhoods with the highest break-ins per 10,000 residents.

Signs can be seen throughout the city warning residents and tourists alike not to leave anything inside their cars, but that has not deterred criminals.

A car with broken window is seen in Alamo Square in San Francisco on August 9, 2023. Car break-ins have been at epidemic levels throughout the Bay Area. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Police take information from a tourist couple whose car was smashed and belongings were stolen in Alamo Square of San Francisco on Aug. 9, 2023. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A safety alert sign that says ”Prevent Crime” is seen near the Palace of Fine Arts as car break-ins have been at epidemic levels in San Francisco.Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

McCray, who is the vice president of the SFPD union, said the break-ins have added to the crippling effect of the doom loop has had on the entire city, which has seen dozens of businesses shutter since 2021.

McCray said while there are undercover police who track the break-ins, there are still not enough resources because the department is also struggling to keep up with regular calls for service and incidents involving fentanyl and other drug overdoses.

There is also the risk of putting the public in danger should the brazen burglars speed through residential and tourist areas, she said.

A homeless man sleeps by the former location of Old Navy on Market Street in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 2023. Many retailers are citing homeless problems and other challenges of operating in Downtown San Francisco and contemplating whether to remain open.David G. McIntyre for NY Post

McCray added, “When we do make an arrest for a break-in, the problem is, they are released almost immediately on their own recognizance and they go right back out there and do it again. A lot of them even have ankle monitoring bracelets and they still don’t care. There’s that complete disregard because they know they will just get away with it.”

Ty Vinson, owner of Super Auto Glass, said business has been booming since the pandemic because of the surge of bipping incidents. He said residents, tourists, rental car companies and dealerships have been calling his business nonstop.

He said about 20% of glass replacements are windshields and the other 80% are other windows in the vehicle.

“We even have some customers call us two or three times a week,” Vinson said. “There’s people who have told us that they have our number on their speed dial.

Safety alert signs are seen near the Golden Gate Bridge as car break-ins continue to increase in San Francisco.Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“It’s good for our business but it is very sad because we don’t like to see our communities like this. This shouldn’t be happening with this frequency.”

McCray said residents have been so frustrated by the thefts that they leave notes for would-be burglars.

“People are even leaving notes on their car saying, ‘Hey, I have nothing inside. Just don’t break my window.’ It’s really sad to think about that because you just want to come in and enjoy the city, but you have to worry about something like that happening.”

A homeless encampment is seen in Tenderloin District of San Francisco pictured on June 6, 2023.Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Vinson said he has grown frustrated by city leader’s inaction. While on a recent call to replace a customer’s broken-in window in San Francisco, he saw another smash and grab incident happen directly across the street.

“This doesn’t just happen in San Francisco, and unfortunately, it’s happening all across the Bay Area,” he said. “If they do get arrested, they are back on the street the next morning because they aren’t being held in jail.

“I feel like the residents and business owners, have become the cleanup crew. The city leaders and people in power have to understand that what they are doing is also creating a problem. You can’t just let people off because it lets them know it’s OK to continue to do these crimes.

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A Cruise autonomous taxi in San Francisco.

New York
CNN
 — 

San Francisco residents were caught off guard this weekend after Cruise self-driving cars caused a traffic jam, according to social media posts. The obstruction came a few days after California regulators approved robotaxi companies to operate their driverless cars 24/7 throughout the city.

Videos posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, show at least 10 Cruise vehicles not moving with their hazard lights blinking in the city’s North Beach neighborhood, near where the Outside Lands music festival was happening. One account, FriscoLive415, said the incident was a “complete meltdown.”

Witnesses told CNN affiliate KPIX-TV that the driverless cars were blocking intersections Friday evening for about 15 minutes, causing concern that driverless cars could impede emergency vehicles from accessing the area.

Cruise responded on X, writing that the music festival “posed wireless bandwidth constraints causing delayed connectivity to our vehicles.” The company added that it’s “actively investigating and working on solutions to prevent this from happening again.”

“We apologize to those who were impacted,” Cruise said.

Cruise didn’t immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

The company recently posted on X that its vehicles had surpassed four million driverless miles, and the company is now exceeding one million driverless miles per month.

“They’re deploying hundreds of cars on our streets. They should take a timeout and a pause, until they perfect this technology,” Aaron Peskin, the President of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, told KPIX-TV. He represents North Beach on the board.

Peskin also told the Los Angeles Times that he’s concerned about an emergency if this happens again. “Our houses in North Beach are made of sticks,” he told the newspaper. He added that he’s pursuing “every means” to have the state’s decision reversed and might seek a court injunction.

The incident came a day after the the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates self-driving cars in the state, voted 3-to-1 in favor of Waymo and Cruise expanding their operations. That means residents and visitors to San Francisco will be able to pay a fare to ride in a driverless taxi, ushering in new automated competition to cab and ridehail drivers.

Cruise spokesperson Drew Pusateri previously told CNN that the 24/7 driverless service is a “historic industry milestone” that puts Cruise “in a position to compete with traditional ridehail, and challenge an unsafe, inaccessible transportation status quo.”

Despite the state’s approval, local officials also expressed their dissent.

The San Francisco Police Officers Association, San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association and the San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 all wrote letters to the CPUC expressing concerns that autonomous vehicles could impede emergency responders.

“The time that it takes for an officer or any other public safety employee to try and interact with an autonomous vehicle is frustrating in the best-case scenario, but when they can not comprehend our demands to move to the side of the roadway and are stopped in the middle of the roadway blocking emergency response units, then it rises to another level of danger,” wrote Tracy McCray, President of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, “and that is unacceptable.”

The San Francisco Fire Department has recorded 55 incidents of driverless vehicles interfering with their emergency responses in 2023 as of last week, the department confirmed to CNN.

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A busy night in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood proved too much for Cruise cars on Friday.

Several social media videos showed nearly a dozen robotaxis stopping in the middle of the street or trying to maneuver out of tight spots around Vallejo Street, Grant Avenue, and Columbus Avenue.

Cruise told NBC Bay Area on Saturday that it was suffering from wireless connectivity issues, which caused delays to cars. It added it’s working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

This traffic jam coincided with San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music Festival which is going on about four miles away at Golden Gate Park.

On the social media platform X on Saturday, Cruise said that a “large festival posed wireless bandwidth constraints causing delayed connectivity to our vehicles.”

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Hi @friscolive415 – A large festival posed wireless bandwidth constraints causing delayed connectivity to our vehicles. We are actively investigating and working on solutions to prevent this from happening again. We apologize to those who were impacted.

— cruise (@Cruise) August 12, 2023

New York resident Valerie Jacobson, who was visiting San Francisco on Friday, says it was a confusing mess.

“As we were walking back to our hotel, there was this huge jam up of about ten cars and I looked and there were no drivers in them,” Jacobson recalled.

“One of them was like pretty much stuck up against one of the sidewalk sheds and trying to maneuver out of it but couldn’t,” she said. “There was also a huge lineup ahead of it. One of them was stopped at the top of the hill for no apparent reason. This had created a huge backlog.”

Witnesses of this incident told NBC Bay Area they noticed the traffic snarl just before 11 p.m. on Friday.

One witness provided this photo to NBC Bay Area of several Cruise robotaxis stalled on Vallejo Street in San Francisco’s North Beach just before 11 p.m. on Friday August 11.

“Other than being an inconvenience, it’s dangerous,” said San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who said he immediately received complaints from his constituents about the robotaxi jam.

The incident happened the day after the California Public Utilities Commission ruled in a 3-1 vote to allow Cruise and Waymo to expand robotaxi operations in San Francisco and part of San Mateo County 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Cruise is owned by General Motors and Waymo is owned by Alphabet.

“There was just a total meltdown,” said Peskin of the incident Friday, “which shows that San Francisco’s government that petitioned for an incremental approach –that we’re right.”

“These things are not ready for prime time,” Peskin said of the autonomous vehicles.

He also said the notion that wireless issues caused this backup “is scary as heck if you think about the fact that moving these vehicles out of traffic requires cell service.”

Peskin worries about what would happen if a natural disaster, for example, knocked out cell service. He referred to autonomous vehicles as “amazing devices,” but is among the local leaders arguing that “they should not be expanded until the technology has been worked out.” 

Peskin noted that local leaders are pushing at the state and federal levels, calling for more oversight of driverless cars.

In the meantime, he has an ask directly for California’s governor.

“At the end of the day, the five members of California’s Public Utilities Commission are appointed directly by the Governor of the State of California, and I think Gavin Newsom needs to do something about this before somebody gets killed,” Peskin said.

A busy night in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood proved too much for Cruise cars on Friday.

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