A woman in San Francisco was seriously injured on Monday evening after being struck by a hit-and-run driver, which pushed her onto the path of a self-driving car. The incident occurred in the SoMa neighborhood and the victim was trapped underneath the autonomous vehicle. The San Francisco Fire Department received a 911 call and was able to extricate the victim using rescue tools. She was then transported to a local trauma center with multiple injuries.
According to Captain Justin Schorr of the San Francisco Fire Department, the woman was found pinned beneath the left rear axle of the self-driving car, which was empty at the time. The car’s operating company, Cruise, was immediately contacted and disabled the vehicle remotely so that rescuers could free the woman. She was eventually transported to the hospital with serious injuries. No updates on her condition have been provided at this time.
Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, has released a statement regarding the incident, stating that they are working closely with the police to identify the hit-and-run driver. They explained that a human-driven vehicle struck the pedestrian who was then launched in front of the self-driving car. The self-driving car braked aggressively to minimize impact, while the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene. Cruise has cooperated with the police and kept the self-driving car in place as requested.
Cruise is one of the two companies operating fleets of driverless cars in San Francisco, with the other being Waymo owned by Google. Cruise operates a large number of electric cars in the city and even offers driverless rides to the public through pilot programs. This incident raises questions about the safety regulations and protocols surrounding self-driving cars, and how they can better coexist with pedestrians and human-driven vehicles in urban environments.
Sources:
– CBS News
– San Francisco Fire Department
– Cruise (statement)
– USA TODAY (Saman Shafiq, reporter)