Why driverless taxis are dividing San Francisco residents

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American city tests autonomous taxis, but residents fear for the loss of jobs and lack of safety on the streets, after accidents. Activists protest self-driving taxis by placing traffic cones on their hoods, which paralyzes the vehicles until the object is removed BBC My heartbeat picks up a little as the taxi approaches. It’s a bizarre sight I never imagined having in my life. The taxi has no driver. He stops in front of me and directs me to unlock the door with my phone – before leading me into the night. But just as I’m about to enter, a passerby approaches. “They’re not safe,” he tells me. He claims he saw someone almost get hit by a self-driving taxi, and he warns me to be careful. The passer-by represents a portion of the San Francisco population that dislikes “robot” taxis. And he believes the city has allowed a dangerous experiment that is putting lives at risk. Some of the disaffected go further. Over the summer, a group of activists began sabotaging cars by placing traffic cones on their hoods – the practice paralyzes vehicles, leaving them out of action until the object is removed. The group Safe Street Rebel describes what it does as “coning” and some of its videos have gone viral. But city officials are keen to allow robot taxis to operate on the streets — for now. View from the passenger seat of a BBC Cruise self-driving taxi On August 10, 2023, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to allow two taxi companies – Waymo and Cruise – to operate a 24-hour service. hours. Previously, they were only allowed to operate trips at night. Prior to this vote, officials spent six hours at a public hearing in which citizens voiced their expectations and concerns. Who is Leonid Radvinsky, who earned BRL 4.5 million a day in 2022 as the owner of OnlyFans? “If you allow the expansion of self-driving taxis, it will take jobs away from families. I’m a single mother,” said Rosine, an Uber driver in the city. Representatives of garbage collection truckers said that cars often broke down and blocked their path. San Francisco’s fire service has criticized the cars for the same reason – claiming their paths have been blocked 55 times this year. Others believe that the technology has simply not yet been proven to be safe. “I love technology, but it’s not ready yet. This is a danger to the citizens of San Francisco,” said Matthew Sutter, a San Francisco taxi driver. At the public hearing, there were representatives of people with physical disabilities who wondered how they could get into taxis without the help of a driver. Mara Math, a member of the Paratransit Coordinating Council, said the adoption of self-driving taxis “would leave San Francisco’s disabled people in the lurch.” Why it is necessary to activate airplane mode on the cell phone during flights And the favorable ones But there were also supporters of driverless vehicles at the meeting. “I see how these cars handle and I trust them a lot more than angry or distracted drivers,” said George Janku, an orthopedic surgeon in San Francisco and a cyclist. He added that he has worked on many serious injuries involving drivers and that self-driving taxis appear to be safer. Jessie Wolinsky, who is visually impaired, said she was harassed by Uber and Lyft drivers. Waymo cars “provided me with a level of safety I’ve never experienced before.” There was also a mother who said that taxi drivers rejected her when they saw her children’s car seats – something a driverless car would never do. ‘They think I’m crazy’: Brazilians tell why they scanned irises in exchange for cryptocurrencies Accidents and what companies say I heard both sides of the discussion. I’ve used Cruise’s self-driving taxis several times over the last few months, with no accidents. At the same time, I was also in a robot taxi that broke down in the middle of the street. Not knowing how to handle a sharp right turn, he simply stopped. The cars behind me honked and finally climbed over the curb to go around us. I could understand their frustration. Just eight days after the vote to allow companies to expand the use of robot taxis, a Cruise taxi was involved in an accident with a fire engine. Cruise’s post about an accident involving one of the autonomous vehicles operated by the company Reproduction / Twitter The California State Department of Motor Vehicles requested that Cruise reduce by half the number of vehicles on the streets – which the company agreed to do. City Attorney David Chiu asked the CPUC to suspend the decision to expand the offering of self-driving taxis. “San Francisco will suffer serious damage from this unbridled expansion,” he argued. Cruise and Waymo insist their self-driving taxis are safe. Waymo told the BBC that the company has completed more than 3 million miles (about 4.8 million kilometers) of fully autonomous driving. And he claims not to have had any accidents with pedestrians or cyclists. The company also says that the vehicle collisions it has been involved in occurred when other drivers broke the rules or drove dangerously. Cruise, meanwhile, said it has completed three million driverless miles and has a solid safety record. 21st century ‘Ludism’? Many San Francisco residents are still unconvinced. In a quiet city park, I met a person who is part of the leadership of the Safe Street Rebel group – who wants to remain anonymous. This person tells me that the “coning” may just be the beginning of physical protests against artificial intelligence. And that this type of human actions will become more and more common. The person representing the group reports frustration that people’s concerns about self-driving taxis in San Francisco are not being heard. “We’re definitely not vigilantes. We’re just the self-organizing community to make ourselves heard.” I asked if anti-autonomous vehicle activists were the 21st century equivalent of Luddites – a group that vehemently opposed industrialization in the early 19th century, destroying machines in protest. “Yes, I think there are parallels here. And I think Luddites have been treated unfairly throughout history.” Crossroads San Francisco is in a strange situation. The city wants to be at the forefront of innovation, but city officials haven’t been able to get many residents to join. Now, it looks like the municipality has reached a crossroads. The companies insist that the vehicles are safe. But if they cannot convince the population of this, they will have to fight to stay on the streets.

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