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Seaports have always been important throughout history… it’s about more than just the cargo, but the import and export of ideas. You could say that a city’s seaside status almost necessarily creates a crossroads of cultures. All that said, something sets San Francisco apart! Maybe it’s the year-round comfy weather that makes people want to spend their time outdoors, or perhaps it’s the spectacular food culture, or the history, or the hills, or the architecture. But one thing can be proven: San Francisco is beautiful, arguably the most romantic and cosmopolitan city in the U.S., and all of these elements go into the mix of making it a place you want to be, whether you know it or not. From the world’s most recognizable bridge, The Golden Gate, to the quirky, flower-lined Lombard Street… it’s no surprise that in SF even a former prison island — you knew we’re talking about Alcatraz, right? — ends up being an iconic destination.

• Send yourself to Alcatraz — for a little bit — as you visit the island that housed not only the prison, but a bird sanctuary and the west coast’s first lighthouse.
• Walk among the world’s tallest trees, between 500 and 700 years old, at Muir Woods National Monument.
• Get some of the city’s best views of the skyline — plus, actually, sea lions — at Pier 39 near Fisherman’s Wharf.
• Visit San Francisco’s amazing neighbors like the charming, arty Sausalito and the serene Napa Valley wine region.

See it all from San Francisco.

* Taxes, fees, and port expenses are additional per person.

Here’s how to get robotaxi rides in San Francisco—and what it will cost

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San Francisco robotaxi companies Cruise and Waymo are now allowed to operate across the city 24/7 and charge passengers for the service. 

So what does that mean for those of us looking for driverless rides? Here’s what you need to know.

How to Hitch Cruise and Waymo Rides

General Motors-backed Cruise operates some 400 cars in its fleet—they’re practically everywhere in San Francisco.

Cruise had previously given free access to some city riders and paid access to others, though it was unclear how the company decided who received the free rides. The company has previously run initiatives to give free rides to late-night service and hospitality workers , as well as University of San Francisco students.

After Thursday’s regulatory decision allowing for the expansion of robotaxis , Cruise sent emails to the lucky few riders who previously enjoyed free rideshare services, saying that paid rides were imminent.

For the vast majority of us who are not already users, signing up to become a rider is simple: People 18 years or older can apply to join the waitlist on their website .

Riders can also sign up for the waiting list through the Cruise app , which allows users to book cars.

However, it is unclear when, exactly, the company plans to roll out the extended service hours that are now allowed and how quickly Cruise will add people off of the waitlist. The company did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Currently, Cruise cars operate at nighttime between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in select parts of San Francisco, excluding much of Downtown.  

Google-run Waymo has a slightly smaller presence in San Francisco but announced a sweeping expansion plan immediately following the California Public Utilities Commission’s Thursday vote. The company previously offered free access to its pool of riders, but it is now able to charge users for its rides, all day and night. 

“In the coming weeks, we’ll begin charging fares for rider-only trips across the extensive SF service area where thousands of members of the public already ride with us—the first widely available round-the-clock AV service in the city,” a company spokesperson said.  

Don’t get your hopes up, however: Waymo currently boasts a waiting list of over 100,000 members of the public, which you can join here . Users can access their robotaxis through the Waymo One app. 

A company spokesperson said Waymo will invite new guests gradually as the fleet expands in numbers and reach. The company would not be more specific about how long San Franciscans should expect to wait for access. Note that members of the press or government employees are not allowed to sign up.  

“As we expect demand will be incredibly high—there are over 100,000 people on our waitlist—we’ll be adding riders incrementally,” a Waymo spokesperson said Friday. 

How Much Cruise and Waymo Rides Will Cost

Cruise rides charge a $5 base fee, plus additional costs for mileage and ride time: $0.90 per mile and $0.40 per minute. The company also includes a 1.5% city tax. Cruise says they do not have surge pricing. 

Uber, by comparison, charges a base fee plus a slew of other related costs: mileage, ride time, surge pricing, tolls and surcharges and a booking fee. Customers are also often expected to tip their driver, which is not an issue for driverless cars.

Waymo says their rideshare pricing factors in a baseline price, the trip time and distance traveled.

"What we can say is that our pricing will be competitive with other ride-hail services in SF and reasonable considering our service and the demand for it," said a Waymo spokesperson in an email Friday. "We’re transparent with riders about our pricing — you’ll always know your trip cost before you book."

READ MORE: Robotaxis in San Francisco: How To Make the Most of Your Ride

And, if you’re wondering what you can and cannot do in a robotaxi, check out The Standard’s handy guide here .

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Robotaxis Can Now Work the Streets of San Francisco 24/7

California today cleared all-day paid robotaxi service in San Francisco—with unlimited fleets of self-driving cars. Soon, anyone in the city might be able to hail a driverless car with a few taps of a phone. And San Francisco cab and ride-hail drivers will have new, automated competition.

The 3-1 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission came in response to applications from Cruise, backed by General Motors, and Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet. It was taken in a packed San Francisco hearing room after a marathon six-hour public comment session, over strenuous objections from San Francisco officials and some vocal residents. They urged the CPUC to deny any expansion, saying that even after years of testing on the city’s winding, foggy, and sometimes chaotic streets, the vehicles are not ready for prime time. While driverless cars have delighted some early testers in San Francisco and sent tourists scrambling to post photos on social media, they have also frozen in the city’s streets and created traffic jams . The robots’ occasional struggles to interpret traffic conditions have in some cases delayed first responders, obstructed public transit , and disrupted construction work.

Cruise and Waymo have said that these unpredicted stops are infrequent and are the safest way to handle “edge case,” or unusual, situations. But the city asked the CPUC to slow the deployment of self-driving cars, and to force the companies to hand over more specific data on what the vehicles are doing on its streets. The controversy delayed the vote by two months, as commissioners gathered more information from city officials and the robotaxi companies themselves.

For Cruise and Waymo, the approval was an important step toward turning billions spent chasing a signature dream of the tech industry into a viable business—and to delivering returns to external investors that have backed the projects. General Motors reported $1.9 billion in losses on Cruise in 2022, a jump over the $1.2 billion loss the year before, despite expanding its paid rides program. Now, Waymo will be permitted to operate at speeds up to 65 miles per hour in the city; Cruise can travel up to 35 miles per hour. Today’s approval does not place a limit on the size of their fleets, and the companies have not indicated how many robotaxis they will operate in San Francisco. Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina said in a statement that the company will gradually over the coming weeks invite more than 100,000 people on a waiting list for robotaxi service to ride.

Before announcing her yes vote, CPUC commissioner Darcie Houck warned Cruise and Waymo that approval for expansion “comes with tremendous responsibility, and they need to live up to this responsibility by putting safety first and foremost.” She said that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles and the CPUC could retract or change the companies’ permit requirements, and she called for a three-month check-in with the robotaxi operators, San Francisco officials, and commission staff.

Through a quirk of state law, the power to decide the robotaxis’ business fate fell to the state’s regulator best known for overseeing more established public services such as power, water, and telecommunications. The CPUC also regulates taxi and ride-hail services, giving it the final say in whether Waymo and Cruise could roll out their business model for self-driving cars full-time.

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The resolution passed by the commissioners said that the CPUC did not have enough information to conclude that robotaxis have been operating unsafely in the city. It says the commission will push to update the companies’ data collection requirements, including information on unplanned stops and interactions with first responders.

Cruise and Waymo already operate paid, driverless ride-hailing services in metropolitan Phoenix, where the Arizona state government has mostly opted out of regulating autonomous vehicle technology. But California’s reliable weather, populous cities, surplus of tech talent, and first-in-the-nation AV regulations dating back to 2012 make it an attractive challenge for self-driving-car developers.

In a statement, Cruise government affairs head Prashanthi Raman called the CPUC’s approval “a historic industry milestone—putting Cruise in a position to compete with traditional ride-hail.” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana called the approval a “vote of confidence” and said the new permit “marks the true beginning of our commercial operations in San Francisco.”

The companies say they have plenty of other cities on the horizon. Cruise has said it will bring its self-driving services to Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, Miami, Atlanta, and Nashville. Waymo said earlier this month that it would expand into Austin, in addition to an already planned expansion in LA.

In California, the CPUC vote is unlikely to end city representatives’ opposition to the services. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation had also urged the CPUC to deny expansion. And in a fact-gathering hearing by the commission earlier this week, San Francisco Fire Department officials said they had at least 55 negative run-ins with self-driving cars since the beginning of the year, a handful of which delayed first responders during emergencies . The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which oversees transit and street operations in the city, has also been a vocal critic of self-driving cars . In an interview last month, director of transportation Jeffrey Tumlin said, “AVs are like my 85-year-old grandfather, who was a very, very cautious driver and never ran into anything, but created insane chaos around him, because of his erratic driving and the fact that he would just stop whenever he got confused.”

Earlier this week, Cruise said its cars have experienced 177 incidents between January and the end of June in which cars froze and had to be retrieved by staff, and Waymo said its own vehicles had experienced 58 unexpected stops with passengers aboard during the same period—a total of 235 robotic traffic incidents in six months. But the companies defined these freezing incidents differently, and robotaxi critics say they aren’t transparent about where and when their vehicles get stuck.

In public comments at the hearing today, and in others submitted in writing ahead of the vote, a number of residents and state and local groups said they believed the robotaxis held great promise for their communities. Some speakers said they believed autonomous vehicle technology would make streets safer, pointing out that robots never get drunk, tired, or distracted. Thirty-nine people died on San Francisco roads last year, the most since 2007.

Other commenters said the new technology would give people with disabilities greater independence in a city where transit and even ride-hailing can be unreliable, discriminatory, and expensive. “Buses tend to be more difficult for our seniors,” says Nestor Fernandez II, the CEO and executive director of local neighborhood nonprofit Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center, citing mobility issues but also anti-Asian violence in the Bay Area . “Our hope is that [self-driving cars] would be another option for our seniors to get around.”

Under previous permits, Cruise and Waymo operated some 550 driverless cars in San Francisco, though figures from the companies indicated they would collectively have only about 400 on the road at any given time. Not all carried passengers. Today's decision by California regulators means the companies will be able to operate an unlimited number of robot cars that charge for rides on San Francisco’s streets. But the companies say their transition to a full-blown, Uber-like taxi service will take time.

Still, in a recent New York Times interview , Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said it wasn’t too soon to think about what might happen to the jobs of today’s professional drivers, some of whom asked the CPUC to block robotaxi expansion during comments before the vote. Vogt said Cruise has a responsibility to warn government and regulators that its technology is set to disrupt the lives of people who make a living behind the wheel. But he said Cruise wasn’t the only one. “Some of that’s beyond the reach of any one individual company,” he said.

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Cruise is now charging for rides in its driverless vehicles in San Francisco

The company is now a commercial service.

By Andrew J. Hawkins , transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.

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Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company backed by General Motors, is now officially a commercial service. The company began charging for rides in its self-driving taxis in San Francisco this week, marking an important milestone for the company’s plans to expand its service.

The company said that fared driverless rides are currently taking place with “most riders” in the Northwest section of San Francisco. Cruise will continue “expanding our paid service in alignment with the smoothest customer experience possible,” a spokesperson said.

Cruise currently offers a range of services , from daytime rides in its autonomous vehicles with safety drivers behind the wheel to nighttime trips in its fully driverless cars. (The company is currently prohibited from offering rides in its driverless vehicles during daytime hours.) Cruise has been testing free driverless rides for the public in San Francisco  since February .

The cost for riding in one of Cruise’s driverless vehicles will vary

The cost for riding in one of Cruise’s driverless vehicles will vary depending on the length of the trip and the time of day. According to an example provided by the company, a customer taking a 1.3-mile trip would pay $0.90 per mile and $0.40 per minute, in addition to a $5 base fee and 1.5 percent city tax, for a total of $8.72. (By comparison, an Uber ride for the same trip would cost at least $10.41.)

Cruise is also now allowing riders to bring a guest on their trip (previously, rides were limited to just the account holder). And the company’s “Cruise — Driverless Rides” iOS app is now available in the Apple App store via an invite code to riders who have previously signed up for the public waitlist.

Driverless cars are still a long ways away from the ubiquity and convenience of most ride-hailing services. But the progress in offering fared rides is still noteworthy. Cruise is not the first to charge a fee for rides; Waymo, a spinoff from Google, has been charging for rides in its driverless vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as for rides in its drivered vehicles (autonomous vehicles with safety drivers) in San Francisco. The company has yet to receive final approval to charge riders for trips in its driverless vehicles in the city .

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Cruise’s Driverless Taxi Service in San Francisco Is Suspended

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles cited safety concerns for the suspension, about three months after the state allowed an expansion.

By Yiwen Lu and Cade Metz

Reporting from San Francisco

California regulators on Tuesday ordered Cruise, a General Motors subsidiary, to stop its driverless taxi service in San Francisco after a series of traffic mishaps, including one this month when a Cruise car dragged a pedestrian 20 feet after a crash.

The decision by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles followed a turbulent three months for Cruise. In early August, over the objections of San Francisco officials, state regulators allowed Cruise to expand its service in the city. But a little more than a week later, the D.M.V. told Cruise to cut its fleet in the city in half.

On Oct. 2, a pedestrian was hit by a car, then was hit a by a Cruise vehicle and trapped under the driverless car. As it tried to pull over, the Cruise car dragged the pedestrian until it stopped. Cruise said its autonomous vehicle had “braked aggressively” and blamed the human driver for the incident.

In an initial meeting with Cruise after the October crash, the D.M.V. said, the company showed footage from the car’s cameras that ended with the driverless vehicle coming to a complete stop after hitting the pedestrian. D.M.V. officials later learned through “discussion with another government agency” that the pedestrian had also been dragged, according to a suspension order sent to Cruise.

In a statement, Cruise said it had shown the agency “the complete video multiple times.”

The suspension is a major setback for Cruise, which started testing its autonomous cars in San Francisco several years ago and introduced a limited driverless taxi service in the city last year.

It is also an unwelcome development for the nascent driverless car industry. Big tech and auto companies have invested billions of dollars in the technology, and the expensive cars have in recent months just started to gain some mainstream acceptance. The California regulators’ decision could increase calls for federal regulators to take a closer look at the technology.

“When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the D.M.V. can immediately suspend or revoke permits,” the agency said in a statement. It did not say how long the suspension would last.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Cruise said it would pause its driverless operations in San Francisco and was working on enhancements to the cars’ technology. Cruise can still test its autonomous cars in California, but they must have safety drivers who can take over in an emergency.

On a call with financial analysts on Tuesday morning before the state action, Mary T. Barra, G.M.’s chief executive, said the driverless cars had been involved in far fewer collisions than human drivers, but she acknowledged regulatory concerns.

“We do believe that Cruise has tremendous opportunity to grow and expand,” Ms. Barra said. “Safety will be our gating factor as we do that.” She added an assurance that G.M. had plans to support Cruise’s expansion.

Ms. Barra also said G.M. would have more to say about Cruise when it reported its fourth-quarter earnings in three months and at a daylong investor presentation expected to take place in the first half of 2024. Cruise’s expenses were $700 million in the most recent quarter, according to a transcript of the call.

The Cruise cars have drawn considerable criticism from local safety officials, who complained that they were becoming a nuisance, getting in the way of firefighting and other emergency situations. Those complaints have grown louder in recent months as the Cruise vehicles have been involved in several high-profile incidents.

Shortly after another state regulator, the California Public Utilities Commission, allowed the service to expand, at least 10 Cruise vehicles stopped functioning in the middle of a busy street in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, blocking traffic for 15 minutes. A few days later, a Cruise vehicle drove into a city paving project and got stuck in wet concrete.

The day before the D.M.V. announced its investigation of Cruise’s safety record, a fire truck responding to an emergency call collided with a Cruise driverless taxi on Aug. 17, injuring a passenger in the car.

Less than two weeks ago, Cruise said it had released major updates to the software that operates its driverless cars to help them interact with firefighters and other safety officials. Those updates included the ability to manually take over the vehicle. Emergency responders have had to contact Cruise staff to control the cars remotely when they have gotten in way.

On Oct. 16, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruise’s interactions with pedestrians, including the person who was dragged by a Cruise car. In a statement on X, Cruise called the incident an “extremely rare event.”

At a San Francisco County Transportation Authority hearing on Tuesday morning, Aaron Peskin, president of the city’s Board of Supervisors, said the driverless car industry was “not safe and was immune from any governmental regulatory oversight.”

“If there is any vindication of San Francisco’s position, we just got it, whole hog, from the Department of Motor Vehicles today, albeit sadly rather late,” Mr. Peskin said.

As of Tuesday, Cruise had 50 driverless cars running during the day and 150 at night.

Cruise’s main rival, Waymo, will continue to operate its autonomous cars in San Francisco. Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has avoided high-profile incidents so far. A Waymo spokesperson declined to comment.

Matt Wansley, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York who specializes in emerging automotive technologies, called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to determine whether Cruise’s service should also be suspended in other states where it is testing the same technology.

“If Cruise’s vehicles are unsafe in California, they should be unsafe in other states as well,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “There are inconsistent regulations across the country.”

Mr. Wansley said that while regulators and experts could readily point to accidents involving Cruise vehicles that would not have happened if a person had been behind the wheel, that was not the case with Waymo’s cars.

“Companies should be judged by their on-road safety performance, and there is a significant difference between Cruise and Waymo,” he said.

Neal E. Boudette contributed reporting from Michigan.

Yiwen Lu reports on technology for The New York Times. More about Yiwen Lu

Cade Metz is a technology reporter and the author of “Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought A.I. to Google, Facebook, and The World.” He covers artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas. More about Cade Metz

Driverless Cars and the Future of Transportation

Autonomous taxis have arrived in car-obsessed Los Angeles, the nation’s second most populous city. But some Angelenos aren’t ready to go driverless .

Cruise, the embattled self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors,  said that it would eliminate roughly a quarter of its work force , as the company looked to rein in costs after an incident led California regulators to shut down its robot taxi operations.

Tesla, the world’s dominant maker of electric vehicles, recalled more than two million vehicles  to address concerns from U.S. officials about Autopilot , the company’s self-driving software.

An Appetite for Destruction: A wave of lawsuits argue that Tesla’s Autopilot software is dangerously overhyped. What can its blind spots teach us about Elon Musk, the company’s erratic chief executive ?

Along for the Ride: Here’s what New York Times reporters experienced during test rides in driverless cars operated by Tesla , Waymo  and Cruise .

The Future of Transportation?: Driverless cars, once a Silicon Valley fantasy, have become a 24-hour-a-day reality in San Francisco . “The Daily” looked at the unique challenges of coexisting with cars that drive themselves .

Stressing Cities: In San Francisco and Austin, Texas, where passengers can hail autonomous taxis, the vehicles are starting to take a toll on city services , even slowing down emergency response times.

A Fast Rise and Fall: Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, wanted to grow fast. Now, the company faces safety concerns  as it contends with angry regulators, anxious employees and skepticism about the viability of the business .

Every product is independently selected by editors. Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.

A Postcard From Driverless San Francisco

Unexplained stops. incensed firefighters. cars named oregano. the robotaxis are officially here..

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One morning in late August, 102 minutes before dawn, I stood on a deserted sidewalk waiting to be picked up by an autonomous vehicle. The car was operated by the company Cruise , which at the time offered public taxi services only from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Daylight driving was available exclusively to employees, friends and family, and a mysterious group of cyberinfluencers called “Power Users.” The previous morning, I let my shower go long and missed the ride-hailing cutoff. Today, I took no chances and set my alarm for 4:30 a.m.

There are few places to go before five in the morning in San Francisco. When I opened the app, there was exactly one breakfast option open in my neighborhood: 7-Eleven. A cartoon map materialized on my screen with a few lonely cars roaming the cityscape. One swerved in my direction. “Pandan is on the way,” my phone declared. Minutes later, Pandan turned onto my block and pulled to a confident stop in front of the wrong building.

Though this was my first time hailing a Cruise, self-driving cars have been stalking my home for years. I live in Richmond, a sleepy residential neighborhood on the west side of San Francisco that became one of the first testing grounds for autonomous vehicles. Since at least 2021, these machines have prowled the streets after dark, slyly circling the same set of blocks over and over like alien scouts preparing for the invasion.

My first few encounters with the technology came at odd hours. During some midnight stroll or early-morning jaunt, I would notice an odd car gliding down the empty street with an employee scribbling notes in the passenger seat while the unmanned steering wheel hung a sharp turn. Earlier this year, returning from the gym around midnight, I was preparing to jaywalk when a self-driving vehicle pulled up at the intersection. I turned to make eye contact with the driver. My eyes drilled forward, searching for someone to meet my gaze, but the cabin was empty. That was the first robotaxi I had ever met without a safety driver. After a few seconds in an uncanny staring contest, I scuttled down the block to jaywalk at a less convenient spot.

Driverless cars arrived at a peculiar moment in the San Francisco psyche. During the boom years of the 2010s, downtown swelled with new high-salaried jobs that buoyed a wave of boutique, cottage industries from $10 toast to meat-alternative jerky. The pandemic popped this bubble. The exodus of the tech class was startling and quick: By the start of this year, downtown had lost nearly 150,000 jobs and office vacancy rates skyrocketed from 4 percent in 2019 to 32 percent. The term doom loop metastasized as the official diagnosis for the city’s downtown decline. But what economists call doom, many residents like myself see as recovery. San Francisco felt like a city in recuperation after a decadelong addiction to easy tech dollars.

At this delicate moment, just when the town appeared ready to wean itself off unhealthy relationships with experimental technologies, the AV industry decided to make San Francisco ground zero of the robotaxi economy. After years of tests, on August 10, 2023, the California Public Utilities Commission passed controversial resolutions that turned San Francisco into the first city on earth with two AV companies offering paid robotaxi services 24/7. The votes allowed Cruise (owned by General Motors) and Waymo (a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet) to charge for trips and offer rides anytime of day going anywhere in the city. (Cruise, however, limited its 24-hour service to select users.) This decision ushered in a period of regulatory limbo with the technology’s fate in a tug-of-war between corporate lobbyists and government officials. On August 17, a Cruise AV collided with a fire engine, then the next day the California DMV requested Cruise cut its San Francisco fleet in half. Meanwhile, citizens viewed the cars with a mixture of distrust and curiosity; according to Waymo , more than 100,000 people in the Bay Area signed up for the wait list. In the weeks that followed, I rode with Waymo and Cruise during their tumultuous debut in public life to see how this supposedly world-changing technology might fit into the life of one median-salary San Franciscan without a driver’s license.

The journey to 7-Eleven was only half a mile down a single road. But rather than taking the direct path, Pandan concocted a strange, circuitous route — tracing an itinerary that snaked through side streets and residential blocks like we were shaking an FBI tail.

The first seizure struck on Tenth Avenue. Without warning, Pandan froze on the pavement. The tires sputtered. The steering wheel quivered. Yet the car did not move. Panicked doubts raced through my mind before I identified the source of the problem — a police car patrolling across the street. Once the cruiser moved out of sight, Pandan regained its nerve and continued forward.

It took two blocks until the next seizure. As Pandan turned onto Anza Street, I saw bright-red and blue sirens flashing in the distance. Two San Francisco Police Department vans were parked in the middle of the narrow road. Three officers stood on the sidewalk. We appeared to have entered the scene of an active police investigation. With a wobble, I felt Pandan grind to a second unplanned stop.

For what felt like a minute, we did not move. The car idled in place as the cops stared impatiently from the curb. In response, Pandan’s steering wheel began to tremble, twitching a millimeter to the left and then the right. The machine seemed to be making a decision. At such moments, it is hard to resist the urge to anthropomorphize. Pandan seems pretty nervous, I worried. And things don’t always go well when skittish drivers get nervous around the cops at 4:30 in the morning.

Then the fit cleared. Like nothing happened, Pandan gently swooped around the police barricade, and we were back on the road to breakfast. Moments later, the bright green of the 7-Eleven logo came into sight, and my pulse steadied. With our destination only a crosswalk away, a third seizure hit. Pandan began to convulse and fritz. The same message flashed on the screen: “Arriving Soon,” “Arriving Soon,” “Arriving Soon.” The cabin filled with the sharp sounds of machines at work. Then the screen lit up with a new announcement: “We Have Arrived.”

My first ride turned out to be a prescient introduction to the impact of driverless vehicles on the city. Throughout Cruise and Waymo’s first months of operation in San Francisco, AVs starred in a string of high-profile incidents: viral stories of cars freezing traffic, frustrating firefighters, and inciting protesters. Over this period, the fate of the two companies diverged. Waymo steadily expanded its fleet, earning a respectable safety track record, while Cruise steadily imploded, losing both its CEO and its license. On October 24, the California DMV suspended Cruise’s permit to operate driverless cars in the state, declaring the company’s vehicles “not safe for public operation” and alleging that the company withheld video of a harrowing hit-and-run accident. (Cruise has disputed that it withheld any footage.) According to an internal email from the current president, the company is now on a mission to rebuild trust, which could be a long journey.

The original plan for this article was to replace my normal workplace transportation with AVs for a couple of weeks. That idea died the first time I pulled out Waymo to book a ride for work. After typing in my meeting’s address, the app’s suggestion was startling: My wait time would be 19 minutes, and my pickup would be a quarter-mile away on the side of California Highway 1. As for Cruise, my job sadly held no meetings before dawn in the entire month of September. In fact, my life circumstances seemed uniquely positioned to undermine driverless transportation. My office is located in such a bewildering location that no autonomous car will even attempt to pick me up. So my robo-ride-hailing experience was split between early-morning breakfast expeditions and weekend excursions to meet geographically convenient friends.

My immediate impression was that the driverless cars are excruciatingly slow. With outrageous delicacy, my robotaxis drove through the streets like we were navigating an active minefield, turning at a glacial pace and cautiously inching over each speed bump. In this way, AVs invert the traditional symbolism of cars: While a Bugatti is an avatar of speed, Cruise and Waymo are symbols of slow. I wondered if these companies were rebranding slowness as safety — positioning the cars’ sluggish mph as signs of a deep corporate concern for public welfare. Perhaps AVs will be paradigms of consumer efficiency in the future, but today, the passenger must make sacrifices for the car’s convenience. Thus Waymo and Cruise flip the typical customer-comes-first capitalist logic.

The incarnation of this inconvenience is the seizure, which could be the defining experience of taking driverless cars. Over the first six months of this year, Cruise reported its cars faced 177 incidents of freezing that required staff to retrieve vehicles, while Waymo claimed its fleet had seen 58 unplanned stops while carrying passengers. These pauses could range from seconds to minutes, and often they hit during quite ordinary situations: encountering a flashing light or a construction sign. As you, the passenger, sit frozen in the back cabin, you feel the firepower of billions of dollars in hardware research kick into action — dozens of cameras and radars working furiously to comprehend some enigma of the road. What is this orange entity blocking the curb ? If only I could tell the car it’s just a traffic cone.

These seizures switch from inconveniences to risks when they impede emergency responders. Robotaxis have racked up a notorious reputation with the San Francisco Fire Department. From January to August 2023, the SFFD filed more than 50 reports about “autonomous vehicle incidents,” in which driverless cars made an unwelcome appearance. On January 24, a Cruise car suddenly froze on top of the hose line a battalion was using to extinguish a sidewalk flare-up. On May 4, a driverless vehicle blockaded Station 36, preventing the squadron from responding to a nearby dumpster blaze, while a few months later, at the Legion of Honor, a Waymo decided to conveniently stop in between a fire engine and a burning vehicle. “If a Waymo detects that a police or emergency vehicle is behind it with flashing lights,” explains a company web page, “it is designed to pull the vehicle over and stop when it finds a safe place.” This coding quirk — instructing AVs to pull over at flashing lights — ironically can push driverless cars into emergencies rather than out of them. (Cruise and Waymo claim that most interactions with emergency vehicles go smoothly.) Unfortunately, these frozen vehicles can be difficult to vacate from emergency scenes; in the case of the Legion of Honor interloper, a firefighter ultimately had to contact Waymo so he could drive the car away.

“My folks have a job to do, and it never included moving an autonomous vehicle,” explained San Francisco fire chief Jeanine Nicholson in a phone interview. Her department, she says, ran into more problems with Cruise than Waymo, which initially operated a smaller fleet in the city. Cruise “never once really asked ‘How do we work with you and around you to not impact public safety?’” Before Cruise released its cars in the city, Chief Nicholson told me, the company consulted with the fire department just one time: to film a training video for firefighters about where to cut people out of a crushed vehicle in case of an accident. Beyond this, Cruise gave the fire department a phone number to dial when AVs disrupt emergency scenes. (Cruise says it “has been in regular contact with SFFD and SF first responders, including before we launched our public service.”) The Cruise Critical Response Line connects first responders to an “escalation team” that can help with tasks such as unlocking the car door or dispatching an additional field-support unit. In August, the New York Times reported that it took, on average, ten minutes for someone from Waymo to come retrieve the car and 14 minutes for someone from Cruise. Some battalion members, understandably, did not want to wait 14 minutes for help in the middle of a fire and chose instead to smash the car window in a frustrated attempt to coax an AV to leave an emergency scene. But often firefighters — like the passengers inside — simply had to wait for the confused, autonomous machine to muster the moxie to act.

Most rides go more smoothly: The majority of my robotaxi trips proceeded without serious interruption. These journeys felt like traveling in a bubble of luxurious isolation, insulated from the pressures of the outside world where the cushions, climate, and soundtrack never need change from the same palette of monotone affluence. Only a third of my AV outings were disrupted by an unexplained pause, yet the possibility of a freezing incident was a constant psychological undercurrent.

After a few days of riding, the passenger is bothered by the questions you cannot ask: Why drop me off here? Why take this route? Why did we turn into the middle of an intersection on a red light? But in autonomous cars, communication is a one-way street. While huge amounts of funding have poured into developing technology to help AVs see, the cars’ limited audio equipment seems more focused on surveilling customers than conversing with them. In practice, driverless cars often felt explicitly designed not to hear you.

If an incident arises, customers can talk to a rider-support representative who mainly seems to offer the solace of a companion in your confusion. My second Waymo trip took 28 minutes and two support calls to get through rush hour. While grinding in bumper-to-bumper traffic in Golden Gate Park, the Waymo hesitated for a couple seconds beyond comfort. As the car started moving again, the tablet screen presented an update: “Connecting to Rider Support. Connecting to Rider Support.”

“Hello! What seems to be the problem?” asked a voice from beyond.

“Is there a problem?” I replied.

“We’re just checking what happened.”

“Something happened?”

“It temporarily paused.”

“Why did it pause?” I asked.

“Actually, there are a lot of reasons for that, a lot of factors …” The call continued in this loop for several minutes as the representative, Tony, explained these pauses could be triggered by anything from long red lights to pedestrians to a “system modification for security check” and he couldn’t be sure what caused my “incident.” Throughout the conversation, Tony continually found a way to use the word “specific” to describe the unknown.

By the time the call ended, we had nearly reached my apartment. As the Waymo turned onto my street, the vehicle zeroed in on an open spot. When the screen status changed to “Pulled Over,” I took off my seat belt. Then the tablet’s tone took a shift. The hazard lights began to flash. A new icon popped up on screen: “Doors Locked.”

My seat-belt chauvinism had seemed to short circuit the communication system. A cacophony of conflicting audio cues filled the cabin. Commands from the voice-over — “You are here. Please take your belongings ” — contradicted the tablet instructions, “Please Buckle Your Seat Belt.” Then a countdown appeared. “If You’re Having Trouble, Rider Support Will Call in 1 Sec.” Before I knew it, I was back on the phone with rider support.

“What seems to be the problem?” the representative asked.

“It paused in front of my apartment,” I answered as the voice-over thundered behind me, “You are here. Please take your belongings.”

“What is your problem?” the voice repeated louder.

“It’s been hovering around my apartment for a minute and …” I started to explain before suddenly asking, “Can I just leave?”

“Yes, you are absolutely free to exit the vehicle,” the voice replied. “But please do mind the oncoming traffic. Okay? Left and right —”

I did not wait for the rest of the answer before shuffling out of the apoplectic vehicle. I ducked into my building, dodging the judgmental glares of two construction workers on the curb staring at my car’s embarrassing display.

The AV aesthetic might be called totalitarian twee. Cartoon infographics in the Waymo app explain the circumstances when your data might be shared with law enforcement. The Cruise marketing team members read their Orwell and decided to counter any dystopian associations by branding their robots with sans-serif fonts, can-do corporate lingo, and the company’s signature shade of orange. The interior signage felt like an uneasy divorce between the compliance and design departments. “Thanks for Sitting in the Back” read a notice printed on the back seat in large letters, while a tiny footnote below clarifies: “Passengers are not allowed in the front seats.” The attitude seemed to be that Big Brother had the right ideas but needed a better brand manager.

Waymo, on the other hand, favors an antiseptic elegance in its brand identity. While Cruise used the accessible Chevy Bolt for its San Francisco AV fleet, Waymo uses the upscale Jaguar I-PACE as the model for its flagship robotaxi. When the rider clicks the “Open Door” button as a Waymo arrives, a handle emerges from the smooth surface of the car frame. Once inside, a gentle robotic voice greets you by name and reassures, “We’ll do all the driving, so please don’t touch the steering wheel or pedals.” During the opening interregnum, the car is flooded with celestial music that evokes the sound of glowing light in Hollywood movies during angelic visits. Underneath the handsome silver Jaguar logo on the steering wheel, an ominous message affirms, “The Waymo Driver Is in Control at All Times.”

The prime example of totalitarian twee is Cruise’s naming strategy. “Every Cruise all-electric self-driving vehicle has a unique name,” states Cruise’s website for a digital campaign, which invited the public to nominate monikers for new cars following a few guidelines: nicknames must be “delightful and fun” and under 14 characters. Food seems to be the most popular inspiration. Across the city, you might see Oregano, Kombucha, Kebab, Potsticker, Cheddar, or Tostada roaming the streets. The culinary whimsy starts to fade, however, as these vehicles collide with real-world problems. After Cruise’s public launch, I would regularly encounter surreal social-media posts showing slip-ups like, “Toffee got stuck in the middle of Steiner Street”; “Starfruit is blocking an intersection at Dolores”; “Lettuce just drove through a crosswalk of pedestrians.”

The lingering sense of menace in the headlines erupted to the surface in a grisly incident on October 2. Around 9:30 p.m., a woman trying to cross at 5th and Market on foot during a red light was hit by a human driver. The collision sent the individual careening into the path of a Cruise vehicle that bore the name Panini. Panini came to a quick stop, accidentally pinning the woman’s leg underneath its rear tire. Not realizing the weight under its wheels was a person, Panini decided to pull over and dragged the injured woman — already the victim of two collisions in one minute — across the pavement for 20 feet before finding a clear spot outside the lane of traffic. Why was Panini compelled to pull over? A safety maneuver called achieving “minimal-risk condition.” In other words, this catastrophe resulted, in part, from a safety protocol.

“As part of our safety-review process,” a statement from Cruise about the accident said, “we perform simulations to test our AV behavior compared to human drivers. In this case, the simulations performed afterward showed that had it been a Cruise AV rather than the human driver, the AV would have detected and avoided the pedestrian.” (Cruise later issued a software update to “address circumstances in which the Cruise Collision Detection Subsystem may cause the Cruise AV to attempt to pull over out of traffic instead of remaining stationary when a pullover is not the desired post-collision response.”) Such language did little to assuage the DMV, which ultimately suspended Cruise’s permit to operate driverless robotaxis in California.

Amid the many heart-wrenching facts of the accident, the one detail that continues to puzzle me is the name Panini. This nickname is the emblem of a deeper misunderstanding — not just an accidental ignorance but an almost deliberate failure to comprehend basic human behavior. Choosing to name a potentially erratic car for a pressed sandwich is either arrogant or incredibly oblivious. The moniker suggests a failure of imagination — an inability to consider how these cars would mesh with the chaos of city life, to imagine these machines as part of a society and not just an economy.

When you exit an autonomous vehicle, you can feel the sidewalk’s eyes on you. As my destination neared at the end of a ride, anxiety would bubble up. I could picture the look on the pedestrian faces. Here was my hulking, roaring techno-taxi rolling through a nice, quiet neighborhood like a space colonizer on holiday.

In San Francisco, the arrival of AVs has inspired a new subgenre of social-media journalism: a sort of rubbernecking for robotaxis, where citizens gleefully chronicle the chaos created by driverless cars. Since August, TikTok and Twitter have been flush with videos of traffic high jinks created by AV glitches. In one incident, a Waymo froze in a traffic lane for 15 minutes after a cyclist smacked a large “No Techno Fascists” sign on the windshield, while another high-profile case saw a masked vandal caught on tape smashing a Cruise’s sensors with a hammer or a pickax.

One night, I stumbled on a video of a viral incident. A stranded Cruise named Bolero sat haplessly in the middle of a bus lane on Stockton and O’Farrell while gawking crowds filmed from the sidewalk. “What the hell you doing? Get up? ” screamed a furiously honking bus driver stuck behind the robotaxi. In frustration, one backpacked vigilante stormed off the bus and pounded on Bolero’s window. Then, amidst this pandemonium, Bolero’s frozen wheels started to spin. A gasp of titanic relief spread through the crowd. Straightening out, Bolero lurched forward—only to drive a few feet before freezing again. Derisive laughs rained down as the clip ended.

There’s a strange inversion at play: normally, the driver is the responsible party. Yet with no bad driver to blame, the passenger becomes the face of guilt by default. In these confrontations, the rider becomes the accidental human face of corporate irresponsibility.

Over the weeks of my robotaxi experiment, a curious pattern emerged. I found myself making excuses not to ride. Running too late for Waymo. This location is out of the way . It’s cruel to ask any driver to navigate Golden Gate on a Sunday . Convenience, however, was not the only motivation. Before ordering a car, I would do some mental math to double-check no friends lived nearby. As the weeks went on, I gradually reverted to nocturnal driving. Despite Waymo’s 24-hour availability, the window when I was comfortable riding became narrower and narrower. After a week without ordering a single AV, I could name the queasy feeling skulking around my stomach: I was embarrassed.

It is hard to say anything definite about what my personal shame reveals regarding an impersonal technology. In fact, it is hard to say anything definite at all about the future of the constantly shifting AV industry. I was expecting to write a jaunty sketch about going to work in an orange robocar named Kombucha, yet by the end, Cruise’s driverless taxis were banned from the roads of California and Kyle Vogt had resigned as the company’s CEO. Yet as I try to envision the future of robotaxi technology, my mind keeps coming back to my second ride with Cruise.

The time is 5:10 a.m., a few minutes after Pandan dropped me off, and I am standing on the curb of Geary Boulevard gulping down my makeshift breakfast. The best meal I could muster at 7-Eleven turned out to be a can of sugar-free Red Bull and a novelty sweet called 7-Days Soft Croissant proudly marketed as a “Product of Bulgaria.” The next stop on my commute was the office. Moments after hailing a ride, my phone lit up with a message: “Pot Roast Is 3 Minutes Away.”

My drop-off was fixed for 1802 Hays Street, and I walked a block to find Pot Roast already waiting for me in a parking spot on the corner of 14th Avenue. I buckled my seat belt and hit “Begin Ride.” The map showed our “Trip Plan.” Something, however, had changed.

My drop-off no longer appeared as my office. A new destination had been selected for me — an address that I did not recognize. There must be some mistake? I thought. Then Pot Roast’s planned route unfurled across the screen — as a blue line wrapping around the block to drop me off on the opposite curb of our current street corner. The route was a circle.

Alas, it was not an easy trip. For two agonizing minutes, Pot Roast carefully plodded around the block. When we eventually reached the drop-off, Pot Roast hesitated. There was a problem: a makeshift construction sign stood by the curb. The car stuttered for a few seconds. What to make of this new variable? My nerves clinched. And then an idea glimmered into the car’s mainframe. With sudden confidence, Pot Roast turned back onto 14th Avenue and pulled into the exact same parking spot where we started. “We have arrived,” declared the voice-over.

It was a perfect parable for Silicon Valley thinking. The car picks you up, changes your destination, drives in a circle, and charges you $5.35 as it drops you off where you started.

As I exited onto the sidewalk, Pot Roast drove away into the dark. His work complete.

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Driverless car startup Cruise's no good, terrible year

Cruise rolled out hundreds of its robotaxis in San Francisco this year. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

Cruise rolled out hundreds of its robotaxis in San Francisco this year.

A year ago, the future seemed bright for the driverless car startup Cruise. As 2022 wrapped up, CEO Kyle Vogt took to Twitter to post about the company's autonomous vehicles rolling onto the streets of San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix.

"Folks," he wrote , "we are entering the golden years of AV expansion."

Robotaxis, which give rides to any paying customer with no driver at the wheel, were one of the latest tech products to be fully unleashed to the public this year. Dozens of companies, including Alphabet's Waymo and Amazon's Zoox, have been competing to be king. Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, was one of the fastest growing of those startups.

GM had poured billions into Cruise as the company emphasized scaling up at an unprecedented pace.

"We're on a trajectory that most businesses dream of, which is exponential growth," Vogt said during a July call with investors. He boasted about the size of Cruise's driverless car fleet, adding that "you will see several times this scale within the next six months."

By August, California had given Cruise permission to run around 300 robotaxis throughout San Francisco. (Waymo deploys around 100). And the company had started testing in several more cities across the country, including Dallas, Miami, Nashville and Charlotte.

But then, in October, things took a disastrous turn.

California orders Cruise driverless cars off the roads because of safety concerns

On the night of October 2, one of Cruise's driverless cars struck a pedestrian in San Francisco leaving her critically injured and fighting for her life. Her identity has not been released.

A cascade of events followed that ended with Vogt resigning and GM announcing it was pulling hundreds of millions in funding. Cruise is now facing government investigations , fines that could total millions and an uncertain future.

"They were the bull in a china shop. They just kept charging ahead," says Missy Cummings, a George Mason University professor who runs the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center. "When we sat around and discussed who was going to have the worst accident in that crowd, everyone knew it was going to be Cruise."

Tension was building

Even before the October incident, tension over self-driving cars was simmering in San Francisco.

Both Cruise and Waymo say their driverless cars are safer than human drivers – they don't get drunk, text or fall asleep at the wheel. The companies say they've driven millions of driverless miles without any human fatalities and the roads are safer with their autonomous systems in charge.

But, as robotaxis became increasingly ubiquitous throughout San Francisco, residents complained about near collisions and blunders. Local reports showed footage of confused vehicles clogging a residential cul-de-sac , driving into wet cement at a construction site and regularly running red lights .

Armed with traffic cones, protesters are immobilizing driverless cars

An activist group called Safe Street Rebel has been cataloging the incidents , which now clock in at more than 500. The group figured out that if they put orange traffic cones on the hoods of driverless cars , they would render the vehicles immobile. So, they started going out at night to "cone" as many cars as possible as a form of protest.

"When you start having passive aggressive protests like people putting orange cones on your cars, this isn't going to come out your way," says Cummings.

Protesters demonstrate against driverless cars in front of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco in August. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

Protesters demonstrate against driverless cars in front of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco in August.

Cruise and Waymo also ran into problems with San Francisco's police and fire departments . At government hearings, the agencies testified that the driverless cars were a nuisance. They tallied nearly 75 incidents where self-driving cars got in the way of rescue operations , including driving through yellow emergency tape, blocking firehouse driveways, running over fire hoses and refusing to move for first responders.

"Our folks cannot be paying attention to an autonomous vehicle when we've got ladders to throw," San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson said in an August hearing.

California allows robo-taxis to expand and emergency responders aren't happy

Despite public angst over autonomous vehicles, California state regulators voted to allow the companies to expand their robotaxi services in August. That prompted the city of San Francisco to file motions with the state demanding a halt to the expansion.

Seven days after the vote, a Cruise car collided with a fire truck, injuring a passenger.

A pedestrian incident and an alleged cover-up

After the fire truck collision, the California Department of Motor Vehicles told Cruise to reduce its fleet in half, to 150 cars, while it investigated the incident.

Then, just weeks later, the Cruise car hit the pedestrian. Based on police reports and initial video footage from Cruise, the woman was first struck by a hit-and-run human driver whose vehicle threw her into the path of the driverless car.

Cruise said its car "braked aggressively to minimize the impact." It provided some news outlets with video of the incident, which ended right after the driverless car hit the woman . Cruise also gave footage to the DMV.

Over the next few weeks, Cruise continued to expand – launching driverless robotaxi rides in Houston . Then, in a surprise announcement at the end of October, the DMV ordered Cruise to immediately stop all operations in California.

The DMV says Cruise withheld footage from the night of the incident.

The facts stated in the DMV's order of suspension for Cruise. California Department of Motor Vehicles hide caption

The new video footage showed the Cruise car striking the pedestrian, running her over, and then dragging her an additional 20 feet at 7 miles per hour as it pulls to the curb and stops on top of her.

Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon associate professor and autonomous vehicle safety expert, says most human drivers wouldn't respond this way. "Before you move your car, you're going to find out where the pedestrian is," Koopman says. "The last thing you want to do is be driving over them, but that's exactly what the Cruise vehicle did."

Cruise says it gave regulators the entire video immediately after the incident. But the DMV says it was only after requesting the footage that Cruise handed it over – 10 days later.

It quickly snowballed for Cruise after that. The company recalled and grounded all of its cars nationwide – nearly 1,000 vehicles. It initiated a third-party safety review of its robotaxis and hired an outside law firm to examine its response to the pedestrian incident. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also opened an investigation into Cruise .

Meanwhile, The Intercept reported that Cruise cars had difficulty detecting children , according to internal documents. And The New York Times reported that remote human workers had to intervene to control Cruise's driverless vehicles every 2.5 to five miles.

By mid-November, Vogt was gone. Nearly a dozen other executives stepped down and Cruise announced it was laying off nearly a quarter of its staff.

Ripple effect across the industry

Cruise will continue its work on driverless cars as a commercial product, says spokesperson Navideh Forghani. She added that the company's approach is "with safety as our north star." GM's spokesperson says it remains committed to Cruise "as they refocus on trust, accountability and transparency."

Waymo has avoided much of the public ire that built up over the summer. Its spokesperson told NPR that "safety is our mission and top priority" and that "we treat every event seriously by investigating it to understand what happened."

But Cruise's controversy still affects the self-driving industry overall, says Carnegie Mellon's Koopman.

"The whole industry, with one voice, has been promoting the same talking points as Cruise," Koopman says. "So, if one of them is discredited, it discredits the entire industry because they're all using the same playbook."

A lot of that is the claim of driverless cars being superhuman when it comes to safety, he says.

Both Cruise and Waymo have released studies saying their vehicles are involved in fewer crashes than human drivers. One Waymo study says it has an 85% reduction in injury-causing collisions and a Cruise study says it has a 74% reduction . Neither company has released the raw data of these reports.

Koopman says the safety narrative can unravel when people see the driverless cars on city streets making the same mistakes as human drivers. He says he'd like to see the companies focus on making sure the technology is actually safe.

"To be clear, human drivers will text, they'll be distracted. There's the saying, 'the lights are on, but nobody's home,'" Koopman says. "But it turns out, that happens to robotaxis too."

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Kyle Vogt resignation —

After robotaxi dragged pedestrian 20 feet, cruise founder and ceo resigns, gm-owned cruise "failed to disclose" full video and key crash details, dmv said..

Jon Brodkin - Nov 20, 2023 6:07 pm UTC

The CEO of self-driving car firm Cruise resigned yesterday following an accident in which a Cruise robotaxi dragged a pedestrian 20 feet. California officials accused Cruise of withholding key information and video after the accident, and the company's self-driving operations are on hold while federal authorities investigate.

"Today I resigned from my position as CEO of Cruise," co-founder Kyle Vogt wrote in a post on twitter.com . "The startup I launched in my garage has given over 250,000 driverless rides across several cities, with each ride inspiring people with a small taste of the future," he also wrote.

Cruise is owned by General Motors, which bought the company in 2016. Vogt expressed optimism about Cruise's future without him, saying the team is "executing on a solid, multi-year roadmap and an exciting product vision."

"As for what's next for me, I plan to spend time with my family and explore some new ideas. Thanks for the great ride!" Vogt wrote.

On Saturday, one day before resigning, Vogt reportedly apologized to staff in an email. "As CEO, I take responsibility for the situation Cruise is in today. There are no excuses, and there is no sugar coating what has happened. We need to double down on safety, transparency, and community engagement," he wrote in the email quoted by Reuters .

Robotaxi kept moving after hitting woman

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) last month suspended Cruise's permits for autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing. Cruise subsequently announced a "pause" of all of its driverless operations in the US, which includes San Francisco, Austin, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, and Miami. Cruise said the pause affects about 70 vehicles.

The DMV action came three weeks after a Cruise vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco. A woman entered a crosswalk at nighttime and was hit by two cars, the second of which was the Cruise vehicle. First, a Nissan Sentra "tragically struck and propelled the pedestrian into the path of the AV," Cruise said in a description of the incident .

The Cruise vehicle then moved "rightward before braking aggressively, but still made contact with the pedestrian," the company said. "The AV detected a collision, bringing the vehicle to a stop; then attempted to pull over to avoid causing further road safety issues, pulling the individual forward approximately 20 feet."

The accident happened at 9:29 pm on October 2. The Nissan driver fled the scene, and Cruise said it was sharing information with authorities to help them track down the hit-and-run driver. The woman suffered severe injuries and was reportedly still in "serious condition" at San Francisco General Hospital in late October.

In an order of suspension that was published by Vice , the California DMV said that in a meeting on October 3, "Cruise failed to disclose that the AV executed a pullover maneuver that increased the risk of, and may have caused, further injury to a pedestrian. Cruise's omission hinders the ability of the department to effectively and timely evaluate the safe operation of Cruise's vehicles and puts the safety of the public at risk."

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on October 16 opened an investigation into Cruise vehicles after receiving reports of two pedestrian injuries, including the October 2 incident. The Cruise cars "may not have exercised appropriate caution around pedestrians in the roadway," the agency said. Another Cruise robotaxi hit a fire truck in San Francisco in August.

reader comments

Channel ars technica.

Cruise’s Self-Driving Cars Keep Blocking Traffic in San Francisco

Drivers are growing frustrated with Cruise’s vehicles which keep stopping dead in traffic.

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Driverless cars from GM subsidiary Cruise have been holding up traffic in San Francisco over the last week.

Update: 09/27/22 3:54 a.m. ET: The article has been updated with more images from the incident involving a Muni bus.

As covered by SFGate , multiple incidents have occurred around the city with the company's autonomous fleet of Chevrolet Bolts. In one Reddit post from last week, two of the company's cars can be seen blocking traffic near the intersection of Sacramento St and Leavenworth St.

It's unclear whether both cars had an issue, or whether the second one merely stopped because it was blocked by the one in front. Either way, both cars had their hazard lights on. A voice in the video can be heard exclaiming "there's no driver!" as others become frustrated at the stoppage.

Similar frustration reportedly occurred on the corner of Franklin Street and Geary Boulevard, according to KRON4 . A Cruise vehicle was spotted having crossed into a bus lane, with the vehicle stopped just inches away from a San Francisco Muni bus. No collision was reported in the incident, which took place at approximately 10:19 pm on Thursday night.

San Francisco local Emma Becerra happened to catch the incident, and shared pictures of the emperiled vehicle on Twitter . Becerra also provided the images below, showing a worker with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) inspecting the scene. Interestingly, a trail of fluid can be seen coming from beneath the car, but it's unclear if it's related to the situation or the Cruise vehicle itself.

Yet another Cruise vehicle blocked Sacramento St near Mason St, not far from the famous Tonga Room tiki lounge. The vehicle was spotted by KRON4 anchor Dan Thorn, who shared a video of the beleagured car on Twitter . Notably, the self-driving car was inexplicably blasting music from the stereo despite the fact nobody was inside. It's either an odd quirk or a sign that artificial intelligences are partial to watered-down pop rock tunes.

The incident had caused disruption to local traffic, and had forced a Muni bus to reroute around the blockage. After Thorn rang the assistance number displayed on the vehicle's display, a Cruise team arrived within 20 minutes to deal with the situation. The apparent need for a phone call raises questions as to Cruise's in-house monitoring capabilities. One would expect the highly-connected autonomous vehicles to send warnings directly back to Cruise HQ in the event of an unexpected stoppage.

Cruise spokesperson Drew Pusateri told SFGate that the stoppages were due to a "technical issue." According to Pusateri, Cruise teams arrived at each incident within 20 minutes to recover the affected vehicles. Speaking on the issue, Pusateri stated that "if our cars encounter a situation where they aren’t able to safely proceed, they stop and turn on their hazard lights, and we either get them operating again or pick them up as quickly as possible."

It's not the first time that Cruise's vehicles have been a nuisance on the roads of San Francisco. As recently as July , a swarm of the company's vehicles blocked traffic for hours on a four-lane road. That spawned an anonymous post from someone claiming to be a Cruise employee, who stated the company had a "highly chaotic environment where safety related discussion is routinely discouraged." Other incidents have involved Cruise's cars blocking emergency vehicles and interactions with police for driving without headlights.

Human drivers have their foibles, too. However, we're rarely known for simply stopping dead in traffic and refusing to move. Cruise will need to solve these issues promptly if it is to avoid the wrath of the enraged commuters of downtown San Francisco.

Got a tip? Let the author know: [email protected]

The Best San Francisco Sunset Cruise

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The Best San Francisco Sunset Cruise 

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Take it from a local, sailing on a San Francisco sunset cruise is one of the best ways to enjoy the San Francisco Bay.

I had a wonderful time on this cruise and want to thank Adventure Cat for the awesome opportunity!

San Francisco is arguably the most beautiful city in all of California. It sits on the San Francisco Bay and offers breathtaking views that pair with its iconic landmarks, stunning architecture, and seaside charm. 

Picture a sunset sail on the San Francisco Bay alongside the lights of the city and inbetween the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.

It’s remarkable!

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The San Francisco Bay Catamaran Sunset Cruise with Adventure Cat Sailing Charters is one of the most reputable and popular sunset cruises. 

This cruise is on a 55 or 65 foot catamaran that sets sail during the early evening.

The smaller catamaran is full at 36 people and the larger boat seats up to 76 passengers. They cap the number of passengers to provide lots of room for comfort.

You can enjoy the trip from inside a protected part of the catamaran or sit on the outdoor canvas trampoline and get the full effect of the wind in your hair. I chose to stand at the railing because it was much more exciting and felt almost as if I was gliding on top of the water!

The one and a half hour trip will take you by the famous historic prison on Alcatraz Island and then sails underneath the majestic Golden Gate Bridge. The cruise passes by the lovely waterfront of Sausalito, all the while enjoying memorable views of the city and its hills.

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→ Book the 5 Star Rated San Francisco Bay Sunset Catamaran Cruise Here!

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What is the best place to watch the sunset in San Francisco?

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From the Bay!

Being on the water in the San Francisco Bay as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean is a perfect way to watch the city skyline being washed in the golden hues at the close of a beautiful day.

Witness up close the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island as well as the city’s skyscrapers.

You’ll see the famous Coit Tower, the Presidio, the legendary Transamerica Building, and San Francisco’s newest landmark, the Salesforce Tower.

A sunset cruise is both romantic and invigorating! If you enjoy being out on the water, you’ll love feeling the wind and rush of the Bay as you cruise alongside the sailboats, birds, and harbor seals, and learn about what makes the San Francisco Bay a sailor’s dream.

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→ Check Prices and Book the San Francisco Bay Sunset Catamaran Cruise Here!

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Some San Francisco Sunset Cruise Details

~ This San Francisco Sunset Cruise offers one complimentary beverage and a taste of San Francisco with a Ghirardelli chocolate bonus! Additional drinks and snacks are also available for purchase.

~ Another big bonus are the cozy jackets they provide! I thought I would be warm enough, but was really happy to borrow the extra layer.

~ The crew were awesome, friendly, helpful, and fostered a great, low key vibe aboard. There were couples, families, friends, and people of all ages and everyone seemed super happy with the experience. 

~ If you’re sailing in early summer, you might be lucky enough to catch some whales migrating! We saw a couple of dolphins for a hot second and flocks and flocks of birds flying so close it felt unreal. 

~ I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the fog, which San Francisco is famous for, that can roll in pretty thick in the evening out on the Bay. Especially in August. So, be prepared that you may not see the Golden Gate Bridge until you are right under it! And the city skyline can become a misty hint of a vision in the fog. The benefit of the fog however, is the fresh moist air and the great lighting it offers. This is San Francisco afterall, and it is called Fog City for a reason!

~ If you’re bringing kids along, note that the sunset prices are the same for all ages. If you want a children’s discount, then you may want to consider a daytime cruise.

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To board the boat, follow these directions:

Look for Adventure Cat Sailing Charters at Pier 39 Dock J, on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. The Gate J to the dock is next to the sea lion viewing area on the pier. It will be pretty obvious, but ask someone where the sea lions are if you can’t find the dock. They ask that you arrive 30 minutes early for check in and to board the boat so they can set sail on time.

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What People Are Saying about the San Francisco Sunset Sail

There are over 900 Five Star reviews of the San Francisco Bay Sunset Catamaran Cruise.

Customers rave about the unforgettable views and the excitement of being out on the Bay. They love seeing the Golden Gate Bridge up close and personal and also talk about all the amazing opportunities for great photos on this tour! The lighting is perfect at that time of day and the scenery is so unique to the Bay Area, it has that “pinch me, is this real” effect!

The reputation of the catamaran staff and customer service is exemplary and is mentioned repeatedly in the comments. They are organized, knowledgeable, helpful and offer both non-alcoholic and alcohol choices as well as snacks while cruising.

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The Absolute Best Place to Stay and Dine near the Golden Gate Bridge

Are you looking for a special place to stay with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay?

Cavallo Point is the luxurious and historic lodging tucked under the Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito, California. The accommodations are stellar and the views are unbelievable.

Cavallo Point used to be an army post before becoming a National Park. The buildings have been renovated into hotel and conference and wedding venues. There are a ton of beautiful hikes around the property.

The highlight is the Michilin Star restaurant; Murray Hill. You can dine in the restaurant or order to your room and dine on your balcony!

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→ Book a stay at Cavallo Point here!

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What to wear on a SF sunset cruise?

This is not a formal, luxury cruise! It’s windy out there.

You’ll want warm and comfortable clothing and comfortable shoes. Don’t wear a hat unless it ties under your chin because the wind might sweep it off your head!

You might get sprayed by the Bay waves, so wear something that you don’t mind if it gets a little wet!

Bring layers no matter what the season, because you may start off feeling a warm breeze but will be surprised at how much the temperature drops as the sun goes down on the water.

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Fun things to do by the San Francisco Bay

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~ Visit the Harbor Seals at Fisherman’s Wharf – After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the sea lions started coming to the dock at Pier 39. At first there were about 10 and now as many as 900 show up in the winter. They are the “sea-lebrities” of San Francisco and are fun to watch as they swim and bathe in the sun. You’ll find them at Pier 39’s K-dock.

~ Shop and play at Pier 39 – The multi-level area of Pier 39 is a tourist attraction along the water. You can see puppet shows, ride a carousel, dine, shop, and soak in the views of the Bay.

~ Alcatraz Tours – The 22 acre island, now operated by the National Park Service, used to be the infamous prison. You can take a boat from the pier and tour the island to learn more of the fascinating history surrounding Alcatraz.

→ Get your tickets for Alcatraz Here

~ Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum – If you’ve never been to a wax museum before, now is your chance! Madame Tussaud’s is San Francisco’s famous home of wax celebrities. From presidents to movie stars and your favorite musicians and athletes, this museum has you covered. It’s super fun for a few hours off from the touristy streets of Fisherman’s Wharf.

→ Get your Madame Tussad’s Tickets here!

~ Tour Ghirardelli Square – With rich history dating back to the Gold Rush in 1849, this is now a National Historic Site preserved as one of San Francisco’s most treasured landmarks. While the chocolate is now made in San Leandro, across the Bay, the square features the old factory and new retail shops and fine dining.

~ Have clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Boudin Bakery – Known as the best sourdough bakery in San Francisco, Boudin has been around since the Gold Rush in 1849. They make bread animals and heart loaves, but best of all, serve chowder inside a sourdough bowl.

~ Take a cable car to Chinatown –  You’ll see the line for the cable car at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf. Get your ticket for $7 and wait in line for the next car. Hang on and enjoy the hills. You can hop off at Chinatown for some more shopping and great food! 

~ Drink Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista – You don’t have to like Irish Whiskey to enjoy the famous Buena Vista Irish Coffee experience. Pop in and watch the magic as the bartender brews up the coffee. It’s so delicious, you’ll want more than one! Order the fries too, for a midday treat.

~ Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge – Walk 3.4 miles from the wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge. The walk is both breathtaking and stress free along the water. Then you can walk onto the bridge and fully experience the majestic marvel!

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If you have some time, here are some more things to do in San Francisco , and don’t miss the Mission Murals!

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Some San Francisco Bay Fun Facts

• The Bay ranges from 3 to 12 miles wide and is 60 miles long.  
• In most spots, the Bay is only 14 feet deep.  
• The average water temperature is 54 degrees.  

The three bridges that cross the Bay are the Golden Gate, the

• The SF Bay is known as one of the best natural Bays in the world.  
• The famous San Francisco fog over the Bay is most noticeable in the summer, but we are used to seeing it all year long!  
• The Harbor Seals that live in the Bay are one of six other pinniped varieties.  
• There are 18 islands in the Bay. You’ve heard of the most famous being Alcatraz, and maybe you know of Treasure Island and Angel Island. I live on the best island, Alameda!

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Quick & Easy Links

  Flights & Hotels: I recommend Expedia   Vacation rentals: I recommend VRBO

  Car Rental: I recommend Hertz

  Tours: I recommend Viator

  Gear: Check out my Travel Stuff

  Create Your Travel Memory Books with MILK

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Take a Sail and Enjoy a San Francisco Sunset Cruise

Visiting San Francisco is a magical experience, even for those of us who live in the Bay Area. And adding a sunset cruise to your visit is a MUST DO. It’s one of the most exciting things you can do on your vacation in the Bay. 

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• ABC7 Bay Area 24/7 live stream Watch Now
• Watch ABC7 newscasts on demand Full Story

How these cruise passengers missed boarding, got stranded in Africa

Both Americans and Australians were left at port after an excursion ran long.

After what seemed like a dream trip, several American travelers were left stranded at port in West Africa mid-cruise while traveling from Cape Town, South Africa, to Barcelona, Spain.

Jay and Jill Campbell told ABC News Myrtle Beach affiliate WPDE that they were in the first week of a three week voyage aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines when they stopped just off the coast of West Africa.

The couple and others opted to tour the nearby island of São Tomé and Príncipe on the afternoon of March 27, and when the excursion ran late, they said they brought it to the guides' attention.

"We were like, 'our time is getting short,'" Jay Campbell recalled, at which point he said the guide let them know, "'No problem we can get you back in an hour.'"

Upon their return, the passengers said cruise officials refused to let them aboard the ship, even as the local Coast Guard had ferried the group to the anchored vessel.

"The harbormaster tried to call the ship. The captain refused the call. We sent emails to NCL the customer service emergency number," Jay Campbell said. "They said the only way for us to get in touch with the ship is via email. They're not responding to our emails."

The Campbells say they were left stranded along with four other Americans and two Australians -- of whom one is a paraplegic, one has a heart condition and one is pregnant. Some did not have credit cards or medication that was left on board.

Cruise expert Stewart Chiron, known as The Cruise Guy, told ABC News that "the bottom line was, they were hours late, the ship was ready to go."

"More than likely that the anchor was already up, and the ship was already possibly moving," he said.

He continued, "Any operation at that point to get these passengers back on the ship would have caused tremendous delays, and safety would have been a major concern."

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Lines said, "On the afternoon of March 27, 2024, while the ship was in São Tomé and Príncipe, an African island nation, eight guests who were on the island on a private tour not organized through us missed the last tender back to the vessel, therefore not meeting the all aboard time of 3 p.m. local time."

They continued, "While this is a very unfortunate situation, guests are responsible for ensuring they return to the ship at the published time, which is communicated broadly over the ship's intercom, in the daily communication and posted just before exiting the vessel."

The spokesperson added that the passports for the passengers who did not return at the all aboard time "were delivered to the local port agents to retrieve when they returned to the port, as per the regular protocol."

"Our team has been working closely with the local authorities to understand the requirements and necessary visas needed for the guests to rejoin the ship at the next available port of call," they said.

The Campbells said that their eight person group spent 15 hours traveling through six countries in an attempt to rejoin the Norwegian Dawn ship in Banjul, Gambia, on April 1. However, the ship couldn't dock due to low tide, so they are now trying to get to Senegal where the ship is meant to dock on Tuesday.

The Norwegian spokesperson said, "Unfortunately the ship was unable to safely dock in the destination due to adverse weather conditions, as well as tidal restrictions that require specific timing for safe passage. While we share in our guests' disappointment, this modification was made with great consideration for their safety and that of our crew, which is our top priority."

The cruise line contacted the guests "regarding this itinerary adjustment and provided them with authorization to rejoin the ship at Dakar, Senegal on April 2, 2024."

In light of the "series of unfortunate events outside of our control," the spokesperson said Norwegian Cruise Lines "will be reimbursing these eight guests for their travel costs from Banjur, Gambia to Dakar, Senegal" and are still in communication with the guests to provide additional information as it becomes available.

In a separate, unrelated situation that took place coincidentally on the same day of the voyage, the spokesperson said, "An 80-year-old woman was medically disembarked after being evaluated by our onboard medical team, who thought it best that she receive further assessment and treatment as needed from a local hospital."

"In instances such as these, as the guest was released from the hospital and in a coherent state, our protocol is to contact the guest directly, as we would not have the authority to share any medical details with anyone else without their expressed consent," the spokesperson added, saying they worked with the port agent to receive updates.

"The guest has since been escorted on a flight to Lisbon, Portugal, and then put in the care of airport staff to continue her journey to the United States, where she has now made a safe return," they said.

Related Topics

• NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE
• U.S. & WORLD
• CRUISE SHIP
• NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES

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A California man with epilepsy has accused cops of mistakenly thinking he was drunk and tasering him while he was suffering a seizure in his own home, reports say.

Bruce Frankel was seen in a disturbing video being stunned and arrested at the residence in San Anselmo, just outside San Francisco, in August 2022, KTVU reported.

A lawsuit he has brought against the Central Marin Police Authority claims that cops cooked up a bogus cover story accusing him of resisting arrest and battering his wife, Alice.

“If the police had just asked Alice two questions, ‘What’s going on?’ and ‘Has this happened before?’ We wouldn’t be here today,” Frankel told the local outlet.

“But that officer did not do that at all. He assumed he knew what was going on and attacked me.”

The horror saga allegedly erupted after Frankel’s wife frantically called 911 to report that the 61-year-old wasn’t breathing.

When cops arrived at his home, they encountered Frankel — who by then was emerging from his seizure — mumbling and standing near his bed in his underwear, the footage shows.

He then could be seen stumbling, tripping into the drapes, and then falling onto the bed before a responding officer stepped in to try and detain him.

“Stop resisting,” the officer could be heard saying as he struggled with Frankel. “Stop fighting. Get on your stomach. I want to help you. Stop fighting or you’re going to get tased. Do you want to get tased?”

Frankel, who was shouting and moaning amid the ordeal, repeatedly told the cop: “Leave me alone.”

The officer then quickly whipped out his taser and stunned Frankel in the back — causing him to drop to the floor, the body cam footage shows.

Frankel, who cops say was arrested for resisting arrest and battery, was subsequently taken to the hospital where he claims doctors determined he’d suffered a grand mal seizure. 

Then, just days later, Frankel alleges he was contacted by the local district attorney informing him he was also being charged with domestic violence against his wife.

He has now slapped the Central Marin police with a lawsuit alleging battery, false arrest, and defamation over the caught-on-camera ordeal.

In the suit filed this week, Frankel alleges cops concocted a cover-up story to arrest him on fake charges to justify what he alleges was the use of excessive force shown in the footage.

Cops noted in the police report that Frankel had been resisting arrest for more than two minutes — and the officer fired off the taser after repeated warnings because he feared for his safety.

In a statement, Police Chief Michael Norton said his department “regrets that Bruce Frankel has elected to pursue litigation against us for an alleged improper emergency medical response to him.” 

He added the department “will vigorously defend itself against this meritless and factually inaccurate litigation. Unfortunately, this individual has decided to first litigate his case in the media rather than in court, where we are confident the action of our officers will be vindicated.” 

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