Cruise refuses its autonomous taxis, which hindered ambulance response in a fatal accident

September 6, 2023: Cruise refuses its autonomous taxis, which hindered ambulance response in a fatal accident.

The department said emergency medical service crews faced a problem getting to the collision, with two Cruise taxis blocking the road.

That blockage caused a delay in getting the pedestrian to the hospital, where they later died.

The department reported the incident, “This delay, no matter how minimal, contributed to a poor patient outcome. The fact that Cruise autonomous vehicles continue to block ingress to critical 911 calls is unacceptable.”

But Cruise is pushing back on that narrative of events. A spokesperson for the company said videos from those AVs show a different story.

“The first vehicle promptly clears the area once the light turns green, and the other stops in the lane to yield to first responders who are directing traffic,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement.

“Throughout the entire duration the AV is stopped, traffic remains unblocked and flowing to the right of the AV. The ambulance behind the AV had a clear path to pass the AV as other vehicles, including the ambulance, proceeded to do so. As soon as the victim was loaded into the ambulance, the ambulance left the scene immediately and was never impeded from doing so by the AV.”

The incident happened just four days after the California Public Utilities Commission approved an expansion for Cruise and the company Waymo, allowing both to operate AVs at all hours in San Francisco.

It’s a move Supervisor Aaron Peskin has been critical of. And while he couldn’t speak to the events on August 14, there are now more than 70 documented incidents of AVs interfering with first responders.

“In those cases, seconds and minutes can make a difference in whether somebody bleeds out or can be resuscitated from a heart attack or other emergency,” he said.

Peskin is asking the state for more regulation over the emerging AV industry. He said the city is set to talk to legislators and DMV leadership later this month.