Transportation
BY ELLE BENT
Self-driving car company Cruise pauses operations General Motors’ Cruise announced Oct. 26 that all operations of autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars, will be paused nationally until further notice. The company stated that the decision was not related to any new incidents on the road. The decision comes after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s deployment and driverless testing permits Oct. 24. In Austin, more than 50 complaints have been made to the city about Cruise cars as of Oct. 23. On Sept. 17, at San Gabriel and 23rd Streets near The University of Texas campus, a line of Cruise cars stopped tra c after detecting many
Self-driving car complaints Prior to Cruise pausing the project, the city was tracking issues with the cars.
Near miss: 20 Blocking tra c: 12 Safety concern: 9 Collision: 6 Ignored police direction: 3 Nuisance: 3
53 Total complaints
Cruise was testing self-driving cars without a human backup driver in the UT area earlier this year.
ELLE BENT COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTIN COMMUNITY IMPACT
Paige Ellis said on Oct. 27. Since launching in Austin in September 2022, city leaders have been unable to regulate the vehicles due to state law. In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 2205, which amended the Texas Transportation Code with policies governing autonomous vehi- cles. In addition, SB 2205 placed oversight in the state’s hands, rather than local municipalities. “We should not be treated like guinea pigs,” Ellis said Oct. 27.
pedestrians leaving a football game, said Cruise General Manager Michael Staples at a Downtown Commission meeting on Oct. 18. Diving in Since July, the complaints include near misses, collisions and concerns about nuisance and safety, according to the Austin Transportation and Public Works Department. “Thankfully, there haven’t been injuries related to driverless cars in our city, but they’ve caused their fair share of frustrations,” Mayor Pro Tem
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