Cruise AV Pulled Over, Drives Away during Traffic Stop
April 12, 2022—Add routine traffic stops to the list of hurdles autonomous vehicles need to clear before becoming a part of the mainstream car parc.
According to a report from Yahoo! Finance, San Francisco police earlier this month pulled over a Cruise driverless vehicles for operating without its lights. A video copied to Electrek publisher Seth Weintraub's Twitter account shows an officer walking up to the vehicle only to realize no one was inside. As the officer was walking back to their patrol car, the Cruise vehicle took off through an intersection before pulling over again and engaging its hazard lights.
Welcome to the future. Cop pulls over driverless car (because no lights?) Then Cruise goes on the lamb. (via https://t.co/mtmsIeOAUP) pic.twitter.com/ecQ5xXuSnS
— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) April 10, 2022
Law enforcement quickly caught up to the vehicle and inspected it.
A day after the video was posted to Weintraub's account, Cruise left a comment saying the vehicle yielded to police before pulling over "to the nearest safe location for the traffic stop," which the company says was intentional.
Chiming in with more details: our AV yielded to the police vehicle, then pulled over to the nearest safe location for the traffic stop, as intended. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no citation was issued.
— cruise (@Cruise) April 10, 2022
No citation was issued. The company in another tweet said it works "closely with the SFPD on how to interact with" Cruise robotaxis and provides a dedicated phone number for law enforcement agencies to contact in instances such as this one.