Autonomous car and motorcycle collide in San Francisco

Cruise test cars assembled at the company's factory in Michigan

Yesterday it became known that in San Francisco , an autonomous car created by the company and a motorcycle collided . The motorcyclist after the accident was able to leave the scene of an accident on his own. But later he had to go to the hospital because of severe pain in his shoulder, where he was given the necessary help. The company that created the autonomous car claims that it is the motorcyclist who is to blame for the accident. Cruise was acquired last year by GM.

As for the emergency itself, the Cruise vehicle quietly rolled along the road, in the middle of the third lane, without encountering any special obstacles. After a while, the car got stuck in traffic and began to change lanes, but then returned to its previous location.

In general, traffic jams are a normal condition of roads of any large cities, especially San Francisco. A car with an autopilot can rebuild from strip to strip without any problems. But the latter appeared, from where they were not expected. Robomobile rode in the middle row, then began to rebuild to the left. At the same time, another car already in the left lane, behind which there was a gap, which enabled the autopilot to maneuver, began to slow down and the gap decreased. In this situation, the autopilot decided to returnback to your row.

As for the motorcycle, he rode between the right and middle row. The motorcyclist decided to rebuild in the middle row and made a lateral touch with a robomobile. Because of this, the motorcycle lost balance and fell. “We test our cars in difficult and unpredictable conditions, because during the ride the cars get better - in the sense that AI cars are improving,” the company said in a statement.

At the same time, the speed of the car was only about 20 kilometers per hour, the motorcyclist also did not move quickly - at about a speed of 25 kilometers per hour. In this particular case, the motorcyclist was unable to rebuild correctly, which created a well-known problem.

In principle, accidents involving electric cars of this company have happened before. In total, the company claims 14 emergency situations that occurred from September to November this year. According to the corporation, cars with autopilots are not yet perfect, so they can also be wrong. But not in this case - the motorcyclist clearly became a problem here.

According to experts developing these electric cars, in every new difficult situation, the computer of the system learns and becomes more perfect. At the same time, the company claims that it plans to continue to launch cars in places with complex traffic. Cruise tests its cars quite actively, so there is no reason to be surprised at the number of incidents with them. “Our cars get into difficult situations 46 times more often than other autopilot cars,” says the project manager.

He also cites statistics for October, according to which problems with lane movement in San Francisco occur 20–40 more often than in other locations, including Phoenix.

The most famous accident involving a car with an autopilot system is the accident involving the Tesla Model S. This incident is several months old, but it is a good example of what technical problems can happen on the road with an autopilot. The fact is that the autopilot cameras were blinded by the sun, they did not distinguish an approaching object, merging with the background, and the emergency braking system did not react. Then the Tesla Model S collided with a truck. “High ground clearance coupled with the position of the semi-trailer on the road and extremely rare circumstances led to the Model S passing under the trailer, and the lower part of the trailer colliding with the Model S windshield,” the company said in a statement.

A somewhat comical incident occurredthis November in the streets of Las Vegas. Then a truck collided with an unmanned sightseeing bus. True, in this case, as far as one can understand, the truck driver is to blame for the accident. That is, a person, not an AI-controlled machine. The autopilot of the bus provides for an immediate stop if an obstacle arises in the path of the vehicle - a car or something else. The most interesting thing is that the incident occurred literally the day after Waymo (Alphabet) announced the launch of unmanned taxi trials in Phoenix.