A recent video posted online shows a driverless cruise car being pulled over in San Francisco by police, who found the autonomous vehicle had no one behind the wheel.
In video released on April 1, the Cruise car initially pulls up to the curb, stopping as a police officer approached the driver’s side, before accelerating to cross an intersection and continue down the road.
“Are you serious? How does this happen?” screams a viewer in the video.
Cruise said Sunday the car behaved as expected.
“Our AV dodged the police vehicle and then proceeded to the nearest safe location as intended. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no subpoena was issued,” Cruise said called on his company Twitter account.
Cruise told CNBC that the San Francisco Police Department has a dedicated phone number that officers can call at any time when the company’s driverless vehicles are stopped. SFPD officials did not immediately respond to requests for more information.
The humorous episode highlights some of the situations that can arise as driverless cars become more common on city streets.
Cruise, a subsidiary of GM, began offering night rides in driverless cars to the public in San Francisco earlier this year, though there are no fees yet and drivers have to apply for a waitlist.
Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary, plans to offer members of a trial program free driverless rides in its San Francisco cars and has completed “tens of thousands” of driverless rides in Arizona.
Nuro is licensed to operate driverless cars in San Francisco, but the startup is focused on delivery, not a cab service.