A driverless car pulled over by police goes ‘on the lam’
Though autonomous cars might be the future, it seems that won’t become reality for some time after a video of a driverless car being pulled over by police before quickly driving off again went viral online.
The video, posted to Twitter and Reddit, shows police officers from the San Francisco Police Department pulling over a self-driving car from the taxi company, Cruise.
Cruise has been operating the taxis in San Francisco since late 2021, with Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt enjoying the first driverless taxi ride, while the general public have only been able to hail them since early 2022.
In the clip, police put their lights on to signal to the car to pull over at a set of traffic lights. It stops just before the lights, and one of the officers walks to the driver side window and looks to see if anyone is inside.
“Ain’t nobody in it,” someone can be heard calling to the police.
However, as the officer walks back to his car the Cruise vehicle drives off, before stopping and turning on its hazard lights a short distance away.
This time, three officers jump out of the car and stand around the vehicle until the video ends.
Though it’s initially unclear why the Cruise car was pulled over in the first place, the comments reveal that the car didn’t have its headlights on while driving at night.
It is claimed that Cruise employees were aware of the incident as it was happening and were the ones to instruct the car to move forward, according to DMarge.
Cruise later commented on the clip, confirming that one of the officers contacted Cruise personnel and that the company had a dedicated phone number for officers to call.
Currently, Cruise offers its autonomous vehicle services between 11pm and 5am in certain parts of the city, when traffic is much calmer according to Mashable. Those interested in taking a driverless ride can sign up to be on the waitlist.
Image: Twitter