Cruise robotaxi collides with San Francisco fire truck, injuring rider

What happened

At about 10:23 p.m. on Thursday, August 17, 2023, a driverless Cruise robotaxi carrying one passenger collided with a San Francisco Fire Department truck at Turk and Polk streets, according to San Francisco police. Police said the truck was in Code 3 emergency mode, with its red lights and siren activated.

Cruise said its vehicle identified the emergency vehicle almost as soon as it came into view, detected the siren and began braking, but could not avoid the collision. The company said buildings at the intersection block sightlines until vehicles are very close, and that the fire truck was traveling in the oncoming lane to get around a red light, which made its path harder to predict.

The passenger was taken to a hospital with injuries described as not life-threatening. KTVU reported that a second Cruise vehicle, carrying no passengers, was struck the same evening at 26th and Mission streets by a car that ran a red light.

The system involved

The vehicle was a Cruise robotaxi operating without a human driver in the company’s commercial ride-hail service in San Francisco. About a week earlier, California regulators had approved Cruise and Waymo to offer paid driverless rides around the clock in the city.

Investigation and response

The California DMV said it was investigating recent incidents involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco. On August 18, 2023, it asked Cruise to immediately reduce its active driverless fleet by 50 percent, to no more than 50 vehicles during the day and 150 at night, until the investigation was complete and Cruise had taken corrective action. The DMV said it reserved the right to suspend or revoke Cruise’s testing and deployment permits if it found an unreasonable risk to public safety.

Cruise said it would comply and would provide the DMV with any data it requested, and said it believed its service improved overall road safety. San Francisco police did not say whether the Cruise vehicle had yielded, noting that drivers must clear the way for emergency vehicles using lights and sirens.

What is not established

No official finding on fault was published in the sources opened for this entry; the account of the robotaxi’s detection and braking comes from Cruise.