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A woman in downtown San Francisco was seriously injured in a car accident Monday evening. She was found under an autonomous vehicle.
CNN –
A pedestrian in downtown San Francisco was found critically injured and trapped under a driverless car Monday evening. But it wasn’t the first car to hit the victim.
The driverless vehicle was operated by Cruise, a San Francisco-based self-driving car company and subsidiary of General Motors (GM). A video shown to CNN by Cruise shows that the autonomous vehicle in the collision was a secondary car and the pedestrian was crossing the intersection when cars had the right of way.
The video was not released publicly by Cruise and the company cited the ongoing investigation by San Francisco authorities.
San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Justin Schorr told CNN early Tuesday that the victim had multiple life-threatening injuries.
“A human-operated vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV,” Cruise spokesman Navideh Forghani said in a statement to CNN. “The initial impact was violent and the pedestrian was thrown directly in front of the AV. The AV then braked sharply to minimize the impact.” Forghani says the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene.
The autonomous vehicle video showed the front and left camera angles and began as the AV was stopped at a red light to the right of the suspect car at the intersection of 5th Street and Market Street. The traffic light turned green and both cars drove through the intersection and approached a crosswalk. As the two cars approached the crosswalk, a woman was seen walking across the crosswalk despite the oncoming cars. She attempted unsuccessfully to overtake the manned green vehicle on the left side of the AV.
When the pedestrian was hit by the green car, she landed on the hood of the car, flipped over the roof and rolled down the right side of the car. She hit the pavement and landed right in front of the AV. The AV brakes activated as soon as she hit the pavement and then stopped on her. She landed parallel to the traffic lanes. It’s unclear from the video whether the front tires rolled over her or whether she simply landed under the car.
A Cruise representative said San Francisco police asked the company not to move the AV while the car was on the woman’s roof.
Schorr said company representatives responded “very quickly” to the scene of the accident and cooperated with investigators.
“There was no driver or passenger in the car who could have told us what happened,” said Schorr. However, he added that the Cruise vehicles have their own cameras and collect a variety of telemetric data that could help in the accident investigation. “It’s a very unique way of responding for San Francisco,” he said.
The pedestrian, whose name was not released, was treated at San Francisco General Hospital for what a fire department spokesman described as “multiple life-threatening injuries.” San Francisco police are investigating the accident but have not yet commented on the cause.
“We care and are focused on the well-being of the injured person. “We are actively working with police to help identify the driver responsible,” the Cruise spokesperson said.
Firefighters used a tool they call the “jaw of life” to lift the vehicle off the victim before pulling him out from underneath.
Lt. Mariano Elias of the San Francisco Fire Department told CNN this was the first incident “where we have suffered a serious bodily injury from an autonomous vehicle.”
The cruise issue has been the subject of controversy in San Francisco after California regulators last month allowed robotaxi companies to operate their driverless cars around the city around the clock.
The company’s self-driving cars have been blamed for massive traffic jams and several collisions, including one with a fire truck. One of his driverless taxis drove into a construction area and stopped in wet concrete.
The San Francisco Fire Department said it has tracked 83 incidents involving autonomous vehicles this year. This number represents the number of times vehicles have blocked or hindered the department from doing its work, rather than incidents in which an autonomous vehicle injured someone.
Cruise agreed to the California DMV’s request to reduce its fleet by 50% while corrective actions are taken.
Recent events highlight the challenges of developing safe, fully driverless passenger vehicles.
General Motors acquired Cruise Automation in 2016 for $1 billion, cementing its place in the autonomous vehicle race. But many companies have since scaled back or abandoned their ambitions for self-driving cars. The endeavor has proven costly, and it is difficult and time-consuming to deal with all the situations that people behind the wheel might face.
Ridesharing giants Uber and Lyft have both sold autonomous vehicle units in recent years. Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was optimistic about autonomous vehicle technology, has not yet fully delivered on his promise.
But advocates say self-driving cars are still safer than human-driven vehicles.