San Francisco , to the onslaught of the robots-taxis!

Whether their designers call them “robot-taxi”, “self-driving car” or “autonomous taxi without driver”, what is certain is that they have been multiplying on the streets of California for some time. Initially authorized in this North American state in February 2022 with a «security driver» on board to regain control in case of major problems, these driverless electric vehicles were finally authorized to circulate alone in August 2023. Two operators then invaded the streets of San Francisco with 600 robot-taxis, Cruise (subsidiary of General Motors) and Waymo (subsidiary of Google, more precisely of its parent company Alphabet), by running them day and night to make trips to book and pay by smartphone.

In order to reassure the good citizens while assuring the profits of the techno-industry, the Californian regulator regularly publishes reports of incidents in return for its travel authorizations, indicating for example that in the first five months of 2023, it had registered more than 240 in San Francisco, during which a Cruise or Waymo vehicle « could have created a security risk» (for walkers, cyclists and other vehicles). But we’ll not exaggerate, these two companies can at the same time conceal the figures about the accidents actually caused by their driverless cars, this time in the name of the sacrosanct «trade secret».

Except that here, the real, more sensitive than the plans of engineers and the reports of bureaucrats, more receptive than motorized sensors led by Artificial Intelligence, has finally caught the bridges of progress at any price.

This began in April, 2022, when the cops were approached one evening by an autonomous car of the Cruise, devoid of occupants, running without lights after stopping at a red light: As they went around it, it suddenly sped through the intersection. “This is the future!” , one could then hear in the midst of the laughter of passers-by. This continued in July 2022, when a group of about ten Cruise cars gathered in the city centre one evening for some unknown reason, where they remained inexorably motionless blocking the traffic for two hours, until employees of the technology company physically removed them from the street.

Then, in May 2023, when a dog crossing a street in San Francisco was killed in the middle of the day by a Waymo taxi robot that had not braked in time, many began to question themselves under the Californian sun, and not only animal lovers. Then, in August 2023, when a Cruise robo-taxi crashed into a fire truck at a crossroads in the middle of an operation, some activists began to attack these autonomous vehicles by placing a construction cone or other large object on their hood, which has the effect of immobilizing them. And this, not only because their AI obviously had a lot to learn before being launched into an urban space, but especially because these driverless cars embody the umpteenth layer of technological invasion on a daily basis.

This practice has even begun to spread in San Francisco, causing in return the multiplication of reports on frightened bobos whose robot taxi suddenly refuses to move at a stop, because a young or homeless person has just put a garbage can on its hood, and they get stuck inside it and have to press the emergency button.

A hostility that also went as far as touching a rock star, because in the same month of August 2023, just before Patti Smith goes on stage in San Francisco, at the moment that the festival sponsors who welcomed her were listed at the microphone… including Waymo, the public began to boo in chorus against this worthy representative of the city-laboratory. And we pass you to the night walks where masked creatures dressed in black go hell-bent on the robots-taxis with great sledgehammers to smash the 360° cameras (which film non-stop, as also the Tesla).

Finally, a first epilogue ended in October 2023 when a Cruise robot-taxi seriously struck a pedestrian, dragging her under the autonomous car for about ten meters before stopping (and not because of the bulky body stuck under its wheels, but to park on the side!). Faced with the growing hostility of part of the population and the small scandal about the fact that Cruise refused to provide certain documents to the investigators to establish the ins and outs of this new accident, the Californian DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) ended up “suspending” the company’s agreement, which then had to recall all of its 950 robot vehicles in circulation. To the great satisfaction of Google, uh of Waymo, now in a monopoly situation on the Franciscan market for the driverless transport of paying passengers.

But let’s come to the Lunar New Year, which this time marks the beginning of the year of the dragon, and fell on Saturday, February 10. In San Francisco, it traditionally concludes two weeks later with a huge festive parade broadcast live on television, which has existed since 1860 and attracts millions of tourists every year. But far from this event, it is also celebrated from the first night with firecrackers and fireworks in the city’s Chinatown, by a local fauna much more in search of intoxication and joy than exotic spectacle.

So it was there, around 9pm, around Jackson Street, that a robot-taxi came to participate in the party in spite of itself. First covered in graffiti, then the crowd emboldened, with one then all its windows broken, sometimes with skateboards, it ended up being set ablaze with a firework thrown inside, to the cheers of a Dragon crowd. It was a beautiful white Jaguar from Waymo, without any passengers, which its intelligent software had driven until then. Just in the right place at the right time.

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via:Sans nom

Translated by Act for freedom now!