San Francisco refuses to allow self-driving taxis

The city of San Francisco wants to prevent self-driving taxis from operating freely in the city at any time of day. City officials are thus opposed to what California lawmakers concluded just a week prior.

The California State Assembly decided that San Francisco would be the perfect testing ground for autonomous taxis. But David Chiu, the city attorney, filed a motion Wednesday to block the state lawmakers' resolution, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

According to David Chiu's office, the city "will suffer serious damage" if the conditions laid out for autonomous vehicles are not further regulated. The motion filed by the city attorney lists "geographic area, hours of service and fleet size" as factors that should be limited.

Six-hundred problematic taxis

Since the California Public Utilities Commission voted in favor, two self-driving taxi companies have been operating in the city of San Francisco: Cruise and Waymo. Between them are a fleet of about 600 vehicles that operate without a driver, according to the Washington Examiner.

According to information provided on Waymo's website, driverless taxi services are available too in the city of Phoenix and its metropolitan area. The system works through an app in the same way as Uber and Lyft do, but without the need for anyone at the wheel.

Since driverless taxis began operating in San Francisco, several social media users reported serious problems with the vehicles. The cars, which work thanks to a system of cameras and artificial intelligence, are sometimes not very responsive to unusual variables in the road.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, some videos show how a group of Cruise taxis created a major traffic jam on a road, preventing other vehicles from passing. Other videos show how they do not interact correctly with the streets and end up in holes or creating obstacles.