Driverless Cars Are Losing to Driver-<em>ish</em> Cars

Earlier this month, a woman in San Francisco was hit by a car while crossing the street. Had the story ended there, it would have been just another one of the small tragedies that occur on America’s roads, where roughly 100 people die every day. But this woman’s body ricocheted into another lane of traffic. She was hit again, this time by a robotaxi from the start-up Cruise. The car braked, coming to a stop with her pinned underneath. Then it started driving again, dragging the woman along with it for an agonizing 20 more feet. The woman, whose identity has not been made public, remains in the hospital, in serious condition.

Since driverless cars from Cruise and its competitor Waymo started taking paid passengers in San Francisco this summer, they have been entangled in a series of high-profile hiccups—including a collision with a fire truck and the wrath on their cars’ cameras. A bad few months for America’s robotaxis has now gotten considerably worse: On Tuesday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles its driverless cars in the state, contending that they are “not safe for the public’s operation” and that the company “misrepresented” safety information. (The DMV has accused Cruise of not showing officials the full video footage from the accident involving the woman, which Cruise has denied.) Last night, Cruise that it was voluntarily pausing its driverless operations nationwide.