San Francisco city officials are asking state regulators temporarily to suspend their decision to permit driverless taxi service at all hours of the day.
A motion was filed on Wednesday by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, arguing the city will “suffer serious harm” if there’s a lack of regulations on the operational measures of the self-driving vehicles. The filing cited “geographic area, service hours, and fleet size” as factors that should be limited.
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Last week, California gave the green light to allow two major driverless taxi companies, offering fully autonomous pickup and drop-off, to charge a fee at all hours of the day throughout San Francisco. The California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC, a state regulator, voted 3-1 last week to approve the expansion of Cruise and Waymo, allowing the companies to operate 24/7. Around 600 self-operated vehicles are functioning in the California city.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors announced on Tuesday that they would be petitioning to urge the CPUC to reconsider the decision following multiple cars blocking traffic last weekend.
Cruise responded to the traffic jam through a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, blaming the city’s Outside Lands festival for causing wireless bandwidth constraints and creating connectivity issues with the vehicles.
“The City of San Francisco will be petitioning the California Public Utilities Commission asking them for reconsideration, potentially if need be, taking this to a court of competent jurisdiction, appealing to the Department of Motor Vehicles,” Aaron Peskin, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said Tuesday.
In the week since the decision in San Francisco, driverless cars have already experienced difficulties. A Cruise driverless taxi became stuck in wet concrete on Tuesday after driving into unfinished pavement on a construction site.
Previously, Cruise operated in limited areas of San Francisco and only during the hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The company, along with Waymo, currently offers its driverless ride-hailing services in Phoenix, Arizona, covering most of Tempe and Scottsdale as well.
Cruise has been testing its self-driving vehicles in large cities across the nation, including Atlanta, Nashville, and Miami, and plan to bring the testing phase to multiple other areas.
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The San Francisco Police Officers Association, San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, and the San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 have all pleaded with the CPUC about the safety of the operations.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the CPUC, Cruise, and Waymo for comment.
