Skip to main content

Deck.blue brings a TweetDeck experience to Bluesky users

With over 3 million users and plans to open up more broadly in the months ahead, Bluesky is still establishing itself as an alternative to Twitter/X. However, that hasn’t stopped the developer community from embracing the project and building tools to meet the needs of those fleeing the now Elon Musk-owned social network, formerly known […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TBbEAPF

Cruise robotaxis blocked traffic for hours on this San Francisco street

More than a half dozen Cruise robotaxis stopped operating and sat in a street in San Francisco late Tuesday night, blocking traffic for a couple of hours until employees arrived and manually moved the autonomous vehicles.

Photos and a description of the Cruise robotaxi blockade were shared to a Reddit post on a subreddit about happenings in the city.

The cars appear to have been stalled at the intersection of Gough and Fulton Streets. Cruise has yet to respond to questions as to what caused the vehicles to stop and why the vehicles had to be manually driven away. It is unclear if the vehicles had passengers when they stopped.

The mishap comes less than a week after Cruise launched its first fully driverless, commercial robotaxi service in the city. Cruise’s vehicles are initially operating between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on designated streets and without a human safety operator behind the wheel. The Reddit post subsequently made the rounds on Twitter.

“The first thing I say to my co-worker is that they’re getting together to murder us,” wrote the OP. “It was a pretty surreal event. Humans had to come and manually take the cars away. Cruise should get fined to shit for blocking the street off for so long. They even made it so the street sweeper couldn’t hit an entire block.”

Fines for blocking the street sweeper are around $76 per car in San Francisco. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) did not respond to TechCrunch’s requests for more information about how it handles such situations with autonomous vehicles and whether Cruise will receive any fines for blocking the intersection.

The issue calls into question the policy cities need to build around autonomous vehicles when they break the law, as well as Cruise’s own operational protocol for these types of incidents.

In April, a Cruise car was pulled over by a police officer because its headlights had malfunctioned. An Instagram video of the event shows the car pulling over when signaled to do so, but when the cop tried to open the driver-side door, the vehicle drove off and then pulled over a little way down the road and activated its hazards. The cop then approached the vehicle again. No citation was issued.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tRorPmp

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nimbus launches tiny EV prototype that’s like a motorbike with a roof

As shared e-scooter companies have infiltrated cities and e-bike sales have soared, micromobility has been offered up as a panacea to save us all from the ill humors and packed streets caused by gas-guzzling cars. However, one of the major roadblocks in front of well-intentioned city dwellers who’d love to trade in their cumbersome and environmentally unfriendly vehicles for an e-bike or scooter remains: What happens when it rains? Nimbus, a California-based electric vehicle startup, wants to solve that problem with a simple solution: Put a roof on it. The company recently came out of stealth with a prototype for its Nimbus One, a tiny, three-wheeled EV that “combines the convenience and cost of a motorbike with the safety and comfort of a car.” The Nimbus One. Image Credits: Nimbus The thin, pod-like vehicle is only about 2.75 feet wide and 7.5 feet long, which Nimbus says makes it three to five times smaller than a compact car — the better to park and navigate busy urban stree...

Coinbase Q2 earnings exceed estimates, signaling potential market recovery

Coinbase reported its second quarter earnings Thursday afternoon after the bell, beating market estimates. During Q2, the second largest crypto exchange by trading volume generated total revenues of $707.9 million, down from $772.5 in the previous quarter and $808.3 million in the year-ago quarter. It also had a $97 million net loss and generated a positive adjusted EBITDA of $194 million during the quarter. It was a mixed bag of estimates from analysts prior to the earnings report. Some expected lower results, while others were optimistic . But now crypto bulls and company shareholders alike can breathe a sigh of relief. “One year ago in Q2 2022, we started reducing our expense base to operate more efficiently. One year later, we’re proud to say that our quarterly recurring operating expenses have dropped nearly 50% Y/Y,” the company said in its Q2 2023 shareholder letter . In after-hours trading, shares of Coinbase rose 7% to about $96.70 after its earnings were posted, but re...

Silicon Valley goes to war

At Andreessen Horowitz’s recent American Dynamism summit, Hadrian founder and CEO Chris Power painted a picture of the country in peril. “I’m here to talk to you about an existential risk to the future of the Republic and how Hadrian is trying to solve it,” he began . His words – a mix of rationalism and Marcus Aurelius – were not out of place at the event, which brought together a blend of investors, founders, policymakers and other Washington officials to discuss issues facing the country. A notable number of talks were related to defense and national security, in line with the American Dynamism team’s investment portfolio, which includes bets on defense tech startups like Hadrian, Anduril and Shield AI. Just a few years ago, many investors thought that cutting a check for a defense-first startup was a proposition that simply didn’t make sense. The tides have clearly shifted: a16z is one of many firms that’s taken a stronger interest in defense and national security. PitchBook data...