In a scene that feels ripped out of Futurama, a self-driving car has fell into trouble with the police. A hilarious occurrence, San Francisco police stopped the vehicle before realising there was no one inside.
Police stop self-driving car
Revealed in a viral video, a driverless Cruise robotaxi was stopped by police last week. The self-driving Chevy Bolt was reportedly stopped for a headlight inspection.
When the police stopped the self-driving car, they were perplexed by the lack of driver. Just to make sure, an officer attempted to open the door. However, just as this happened, the car quickly accelerated and ran away.
The autonomous vehicle doesn’t go far. Cruise’s self-driving car runs away for a split second, stopping at a safe place down the road. Afterwards, the cops once again try and interact with the vehicle.
With the car now staying in one place, police are able to fully inspect the vehicle and attempt to fix its headlights. What a bizarre look into the future.
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Police had to contact a remote operator
Via The Verge, a Cruise spokesperson revealed that their vehicle got away with an action that a human driver would’ve been punished for. Not only for the faulty headlights, but also for evasion of the police.
Nevertheless, “no citation was issued” for the driverless vehicle company. Instead, San Francisco police called the vehicle’s remote operator and helped to get the self-driving car back in working order.
“We work closely with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicles,” they said. “[We] have a dedicated phone number for them to call in situations like this.”
Driverless taxis are going to be widespread in the future, pushing out standard taxis and Uber drivers. After all, you don’t need to pay a driverless car.