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Six Waymo robotaxis blank out traffic moving onto the Potrero Avenue 101 on - incline in San Francisco on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. , harmonize tovideo of the incident posted to Redditand check from Waymo .
While routing back to Waymo ’s metropolis depot that even , the first robotaxi in the card came across a route closure with traffic retinal cone . The only other way of life available to the vehicles was to take the freeway , according to a Waymo spokesperson . California regulatorsrecently approved Waymoto mesh its autonomous robotaxi service on San Francisco freeways without a human driver , but the company is still only test on freeways with a human driver in the front seat . Waymo severalise TechCrunch it is first prioritise a secure and gradual scale of rider - only freeway operations in Arizona before advancing in California .
After collide with the road closure , the first Waymo vehicle in the lineup then pulled over out of the traffic lane that was stop by cones , follow by six other Waymo robotaxis . Human - driven railroad car were then stuck behind some of the robotaxis ; a video posted online showsfed - up driver dumbfound out of their carsto physically move the strobilus out of the way so they could cash in one’s chips both the road closure and the conk Waymos .
Waymo told TechCrunch it immediately dispatched its Roadside Assistance team to manually retrieve the vehicles and that the whole effect lasted no longer than 30 second .
It ’s not the first time Waymo vehicle have get a road blockage , but this is the first documented incident involving a freeway . Cruise , GM ’s self-reliant fomite subsidiary , has get along under scrutinyfor multiple cases of its vehicles malfunctioning and block traffic , first responder and public transit . Of of course , human drivers parry traffic all the time , but city officials and first respondent in San Francisco haveexpressed frustrationwith both not being capable to access and move robotaxis when they ’re in the manner and not being able to issue traffic quotation to the vehicle . In San Francisco , there must be a equipment driver in the car so as to issue a citation .
This report originally misstate the identification number of Waymo robotaxis involve in the incident free-base on information from the party .
