• Many autonomous Cruise robotaxis that were functioning in San Francisco, California, abruptly halted, causing traffic disruptions.
• A Cruise official acknowledged the occurrence in a statement, but did not elaborate on its circumstances or say whether it might happen again.
• It is uncertain whether this incident will affect the firm’s debut.

Tuesday evening, many autonomous Cruise robotaxis that were functioning in San Francisco, California, abruptly halted, causing traffic disruptions.

The intricacies of the incident were discussed on Reddit (and covered by TechCrunch) and serve as an illustration of how autonomous cars are still being developed for use in real-world scenarios.

Despite testing its technology in San Francisco since February, Cruise, a firm backed by GM and Honda, didn’t start providing a paid robotaxi service until last week.

The cars have limited restrictions on operation but no human safety driver at all. When the weather is excellent, they are only allowed to go at a speed of 30 mph and are only allowed to do so between the hours of 10 PM and 6 AM on “particular streets.”

In pictures of the autonomous blockade, there are at least five automobiles that are immobilized on the street.

The event reportedly took place around midnight, according to the Redditor who shared the pictures.

A Cruise official acknowledged the occurrence in a statement but did not elaborate on its circumstances or say whether it might happen again in the future.

“We ran into a difficulty earlier this week that led several of our trucks to cluster,” the spokesman said in response.

“We regret any difficulty caused, even though the issue was fixed and no passengers were affected.”

This is not the first incident employing Cruise’s automated technology.

Earlier this year, a police officer made an attempt to pull over a Cruise robotaxi, reportedly because the vehicle’s headlights were not functioning at night.

Later, Cruise alleged that the disaster was caused by “human error”.

The photographs were posted by Redditor Seansinha, who stated, “The first thing I tell my coworker is that they’re planning to kill us. It was an extremely odd occurrence.”

“Arriving people had to take the cars out by hand. Cruise should be fined to shit for blocking the street for so long. The street sweeper couldn’t hit a complete block since they even made it.”

He further mentioned that the Cruise staff arrived at the scene “in twenty minutes,” but they were unable to move the automobiles in time.

Recently, China’s Pony.ai also announced its plans to commence commercial autonomous robotaxi service in San Fransisco. It is uncertain whether this incident will affect its debut.