Robotaxi in need: Cruise vehicle stranded at the intersection

2022-12-08T05:16:24.093Z

Robotaxi in distress: Autonomous cruise vehicle stranded at an intersection Created: 08/12/2022, 06:00 By: Sebastian Oppenheimer Manufacturers are still struggling with many pitfalls when it comes to autonomous driving. A robotaxi stranded at an intersection now had to be “rescued” by a human. Around ten years ago, the topic of autonomous driving experienced huge hype in the automotive industr

Robotaxi in distress: Autonomous cruise vehicle stranded at an intersection

Created: 08/12/2022, 06:00

By: Sebastian Oppenheimer

Manufacturers are still struggling with many pitfalls when it comes to autonomous driving.

A robotaxi stranded at an intersection now had to be “rescued” by a human.

Around ten years ago, the topic of autonomous driving experienced huge hype in the automotive industry - and a lot has happened since then.

But it will probably be many years before production vehicles can really drive fully autonomously at the push of a button.

This fact does not change even if Tesla calls its system "Autopilot" - it is still just a driver assistance system that has to be constantly monitored.

TV journalists recently showed the weaknesses of the technology with a Model Y. Mercedes is currently the leader in this field in Germany: Vehicles from Stuttgart are officially allowed to drive at Level 3 (highly automated).

BMW is taking an intermediate step with Level 2+ in the new 7 Series.

In the USA, however, “real” robotaxis are actually already being used in some cities – but there are still problems.

Now a vehicle belonging to the GM subsidiary Cruise is stranded at an intersection in the USA.

Robotaxi in distress: Autonomous cruise vehicle stranded at an intersection

The topic of autonomous driving is anything but undisputed - many Germans are skeptical about the technology.

The central point is always safety – both for the occupants and for other road users.

An interesting question is how autonomous vehicles communicate with their environment.

A robotaxi from the Chevrolet subsidiary Cruise recently only communicated in a kind of emergency mode: with hazard warning lights and activated brake lights.

As videos from a Twitter user (see below) show, the autonomous vehicle stranded at an intersection and blocked the roadway.

Despite the green traffic light, the Chevrolet Bolt simply stopped moving forward.

How unfamiliar such unmanned vehicles still are for many road users is shown by the fact that some other drivers not only drive around the stranded robotaxi, but also honk it - which of course leaves a computer completely cold.

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Cruise's robotaxi gets stranded at an intersection - human technician has to solve the problem

But that's not all: the broken Chevrolet Bolt also brought a Waymo robotic taxi to a standstill.

However, this autonomous vehicle was still occupied by a human driver, who was apparently able to free the car from its misery by manual intervention.

According to the Twitter user, the electric Chevy blocked the main road for almost a quarter of an hour – until a technician finally got the robotaxi running (or driving) again with the help of a notebook.

The incident is not the first of its kind.