A robotaxi, a collision, and the bumpy road to an AI future
While artificial intelligence promises to transform society in major ways, driverless taxis offer a stark example of the bumpy road the technology faces before it reaches its potential.
In California, for example, a serious collision involving a robotaxi is forcing the state to reevaluate its growing push into driverless technology.
Last week, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the right of Cruise to operate driverless taxis in the state after one of its San Francisco robotaxis hit and dragged a woman some 20 feet on Oct. 2. The state agency accuses the company, a unit of General Motors, of failing to disclose that dragging incident – a charge the company denies. Cruise has since paused all its driverless operations in the United States, it announced, in order to “examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust.”
The irony is that everyone agrees that people triggered the incident, not the robotaxi. But that fact may not be enough to save the company – and perhaps the driverless taxi industry as a whole
