The incident comes amid a challenging period for the autonomous vehicle industry in San Francisco. In October 2023, Cruise, a competitor of Waymo, had its permits revoked by California officials after an incident involving a pedestrian. The city of San Francisco has since filed a lawsuit against the California Public Utilities Commission, seeking to reduce the number of robotaxis on its roads. The lawsuit could potentially impact Waymo, despite it having fewer high-profile incidents than Cruise.
Key takeaways:
- A Waymo autonomous vehicle was involved in a collision with a bicyclist in San Francisco, with the company stating that the cyclist was obscured by a truck and entered the vehicle's path.
- Waymo, a unit of Alphabet, has 438 autonomous vehicles on the road in California and has covered over 4.8 million miles in the state in 2023.
- Waymo works with cyclist groups to gather feedback and adjust its testing and validation procedures to ensure safety for cyclists.
- San Francisco has filed a lawsuit against the California Public Utilities Commission to reduce the number of robotaxis on the city’s roads, following incidents involving Cruise, another autonomous vehicle company.