As driverless car startle to take over ourdeliveries , shipment lines , and every other behind - the - bike human role , it was only a subject of clip before they started having inept run - Indiana with cop , too .
We got a glance of what that might seem like in a new time make earlier this calendar month , showing a team of San Fransisco cops tried rend over a cab for driving around at nighttime with its headlight out — only to find there was nobody inside . Then car took part in the time - honored American tradition of the police force chase .
The clip — which was take by a bystander watch the scene unfold — demonstrate a cop standing over a driverless hack owned by Cruise , a subsidiary of General Motors which was approved to exam - launch its driverless taxis down the streets of San Fransiscolate last yr . Stipulations in Cruise ’s “ driverless deployment permit ” intend that the company can only operate the car in a driverless electrical capacity between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. , which is why the railroad car was seen skulking around at dark . But why the auto chose to see the sights without its Christ Within on is unclear .

Photo: Smith Collection/Gado (Getty Images)
The clip starts with one of the cops approaching the robo - taxi , as someone off - camera call out that there “ ai n’t nobody in it . ” The fuzz does a quick check to confirm , and commence walking back to their own police vehicle . Then the hack makes a literal rivulet for it , hasten off to the other side of the junction before coming to a stop at the curb .
“ Are you serious ? How does that happen ? ” another bystander can be heard shouting as the fuzz race up behind the taxi ( again ) . The 2d time around , both cop came out , encircled the taxi in interrogation and on the face of it strike down its identifying info while waiting for a third policeman to go far at the scene .
It ’s a video that raise doubtfulness about driverless cars that were once only the provenance of an Isaac Asimov write up . Why did the car suddenly try speeding off ? Did it know that bull were trying to overstretch it over ? Did it feel hangdog ? Can cars register guilty conscience ? Was the car just tv camera shy , and trying to hightail it from the gawking pedestrians ?

Cruise , for its part , tweeted outa response to the footage over the weekend , sound out that its motorcar “ yielded to the police force vehicle , then pull over to the nearest secure placement for the dealings stop , as intended . ” The company did not come up to why the car hotfoot out from the police .
“ An officer contact Cruise personnel and no commendation was cut , ” Cruise went on . “ We work out intimately with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicle , including a dedicated headphone number for them to call in billet like this . ”
While this certainly is n’t the first time that a ego - repel fomite has beenpulled overfor abnormal behavior , this does seem to be the first time that one ’s been pulled over without any equipment driver or rider indoors . And when something like that hap , the only matter we , as passersby , can really do is promise that the company remembers to keep its lights on next prison term .

We ’ve attain out to the San Francisco Police Department for comment on the car , and will update here when we get word back .
self-propelled safetyGENERAL MOTORSRobotaxiSelf - labour carsTelevision seriesTransport
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