A growing community of tech investors see automated driving as the inevitable future of travel because the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
The biggest selling point for automated driving is the more than 40,000 people per year who are killed in car accidents per year. Humans are currently responsible for 100% of those fatalities and automated systems don't get distracted, don't drink and drive and don't fall asleep at the wheel.
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But after just a week of San Francisco became the most liberal city in the country for allowing robotaxi access, safety concerns have forced the California Department of Motor Vehicles to investigate several traffic incidents, including crashes, involving General Motors' (GM) -) Cruise robotaxi fleet in the city.
The developments in San Francisco beg the question: how much safer are robotaxis actually?
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety has been trying to determine the answer to that very question since at least July 2021 when it began publishing data about crashes involving automated driving systems.
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Alphabet's (GOOGL) -) automated car company has led the way with 150 vehicle crashes through July 2023 (the latest month of available data), followed by Transdev Alternative Services with 92 crashes and 78 crashes from Cruise vehicles.
In the majority of reported collisions, the self-driving vehicles crashed into other vehicles in the road, but also a majority of the accidents resulted in no injuries.
Cruise has been especially under the microscope in San Francisco – one of three cities where it operates, including Austin and Phoenix also – after its vehicles, along with Waymo's, were given unrestricted expansion across the city earlier this month, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Since then, a Cruise vehicle with a passenger in the back has collided with a fire truck in an intersection after failing to yield, and a group of Cruise robotaxis caused a huge Friday night traffic jam in the city after bad cellphone service due to a nearby music festival caused a bunch to malfunction in the same intersection.
Last week, the California DMV requested that Cruise reduce its driverless fleet by 50% in San Francisco while it investigates "recent concerning incidents" involving the vehicle.
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