|
General Motors' Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo accounted for the
bulk of the miles - 63% and 36% respectively - recorded without
a safety driver, according to the state's department of motor
vehicles (DMV).
Taxis with empty driver's seats have become common in the San
Francisco area. The Cruise accident, in which an autonomous
vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian 20 feet (6.1 meters),
sparked a public outcry and prompted the company to halt
operations across the country.
Autonomous tests with a safety driver rose to 5.7 million miles
from 5.1 million, DMV data from Dec. 1, 2022 to Nov. 30, 2023
showed.
Supporters of self-driving technology have long claimed it can
be safer than human drivers who may drive drunk, while texting,
or fall asleep behind the wheel.
San Francisco residents, city agencies and some labor unions
complain that robotaxis disrupt traffic and put people at risk
with their erratic driving and abrupt stops in the middle of
busy roads.
In October, the DMV suspended testing and deployment permits for
Cruise, which is facing multiple investigations, including one
by the Justice Department.
On Friday, DMV said 38 companies had permits to test their
autonomous vehicles with a safety driver.
Six of them have been permitted for driverless testing: Waymo,
Amazon's Zoox unit, Chinese search giant Baidu's Apollo, and
Chinese startups Nuro, WeRide and AutoX.
Concerns about Chinese companies testing autonomous vehicles
have also grown, with some U.S. lawmakers calling for greater
transparency over their collection and storage of sensitive data
on citizens, infrastructure and technologies.
(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Peter
Henderson and Richard Chang)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
