Cruise AVs: Impact of Dedicated Cell Towers on Road Safety

Tuesday - August 22 2023, 16:08 UTC - 1 year ago

Cruise AVs have the potential to reduce traffic fatalities, however public safety remains the top concern. The company has implemented multiple safety protocols and obtained the necessary permits to operate its driverless vehicles, but is also considering making its own dedicated cell towers to further ensure safety.

GM Cruise will have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150 driverless vehicles in operation at night. DMV warned that they reserve the right to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits if there is a risk to public safety.

There were at least two incidents of vehicles hitting Cruise AV. On Thursday, Aug. 16, a fire engine slammed into a Cruise car that had stopped in the middle of an intersection on a green light, injuring its passenger. The fire truck had its lights and sirens on, said police officials. On the same night, a cruise vehicle and a car collided on Mission and 26th. On Friday, Aug. 11, the day after the PUC vote, nearly a dozen Cruise cars stopped in the middle of a two block stretch in North Beach, causing backups in all directions. On Thursday, Aug. 16, Mission Local filmed another Cruise vehicle that froze on Mission Street before turning into an active construction zone on the wrong side of the road.

The AV positively identified the emergency vehicle almost immediately as it came into view, which is consistent with our underlying safety design and expectation. It is worth noting, however, that the confines of this specific intersection make visual identification more challenging – for humans and AVs alike – as it is significantly occluded by buildings, meaning that it is not possible to see objects around the corner until they are physically very close to the intersection.

The AV’s ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle’s path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light. Cruise AVs have the ability to detect emergency sirens, which increase their ability to operate safely around emergency vehicles and accompanying scenes. In this instance, the AV identified the siren as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise. The Cruise AV did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision.

Traffic Jams by Cruise Ten Cruise robotaxis stopped and caused traffic jams. Cruise said this was because of loss of cellular service. Cruise has indicated that they could make their own dedicated cell towers to avoid this kind of problem. This would be a few million dollars of infrastructure for each city they service.

Cruise has become the first company to receive approval to operate its autonomous vehicles without a safety driver in San Francisco. The company worked for more than two years to get approved in the city. Cruse AV’s vehicles must meet certain safety requirements and must feature additional vehicle safety systems for providing backup to the driver in case of system failure. This includes automatic braking, lane tracking, personalized texts warnings, warning lights, and active monitoring. Additionally, the vehicles must have a plan in place to identify risks of oncoming traffic. The vehicles also receive more rigorous testing of certain safety protocols and keep records of their testing results.

Cruise’s controversial plan to allow driverless vehicles to take to the streets is now officially underway. The ride-hailing company landed the necessary permits from the San Francisco PUC and has already deployed several fleets of driverless machines in the city, but public safety remains the primary concern. Cruise has implemented several measures to make sure its driverless cars are operated as safely as possible.

The main goal of Cruise AVs is to reduce traffic fatalities. “Safety is our number one priority and we are very committed to continuing to make our driverless vehicles as safe as possible,” CEO Dan Ammann said. “We will continue to work closely with the city to work through any issue that arise, so that we can make sure our cars are as safe and reliable as possible.” .