A day after a seminal vote expanded driverless cars’ access in San Francisco (and ostensibly throughout the state of California), Cruise vehicles seemed unprepared to deal with the all-encompassing onslaught that is Outside Lands.
The reason for the vehicles’ road blockage: The sheer volume of festival-goers across town at Golden Gate Park caused “wireless connectivity issues” for the vehicles themselves. As a result of its cell service woes, the company was unable to route its vehicles remotely, according to the Chronicle. (SFGATE and the Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
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Back at Outside Lands, a Cruise appeared to be stuck for at least 45 minutes at a key intersection for passengers looking to head home.
A minute-long video shared by TikTok user @highwithlo Friday night showed a Cruise vehicle on 34th Ave. and Judah St. “stuck in the road for God knows how long cause mayhem outside of the festival.” The original poster did not respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.
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The footage shows throngs of festival-goers waiting for the MUNI N line as drivers went around through the already-filled Outer Sunset thoroughfare. This writer saw a Cruise at the same intersection stall at around 10:30 p.m., shortly after Kendrick Lamar’s set, while SFGATE photo editor Douglas Zimmerman witnessed what looked to be the same vehicle drive off on its own at around 11:15 p.m. Representatives for Cruise did not respond to a request for comment about this stuck vehicle or the North Beach one.)
A Waymo video can be seen in the TikTok driving past the Cruise. “The Waymo is so much smarter,” one person in the video joked. “Where are we? ‘Meet the Robinsons’?”
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