Autonomous cars are often in the news for being involved in accidents. A driverless self-driving Cruise car crashed into a semi-truck in San Francisco, according to @alfsan on .
The user posted a short video and pictures of the accident scene. The crash occurred near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
“So I just witnessed my first #driverless #carcrash in #sf by a @Cruise crashing into a #semi in golden gate park” (via InsideEVs)
So I just witnessed my first #driverless #carcrash in #sf by a @Cruise crashing into a #semi in golden gate park pic.twitter.com/LFeBI6mwVM
— Alf Santos (@alfsan) August 7, 2023
Initial analysis of the accident scene suggests the Chevrolet Bolt EV was hit by the semi-truck’s trailer. @alfsan’s video shows the truck moving away from the Bolt, revealing damages to the passenger side mirror, a camera, and a flat tire.
Cruise responded to the tweet, explaining what occurred and how the EV handled the situation. “We’re actively investigating, but we can confirm that the truck attempted a left turn from the right lane while our car was passing. The AV came to a complete stop to avoid a collision when it detected the truck beginning to move, but the truck continued and struck our vehicle.”
The explanation by Cruise makes it sound like it was the truck driver’s fault, but it is more likely that both are to blame. Anyone who has driven behind a large semi truck like this knows they need extra space to turn corners, and often have to occupy the adjacent lane to complete the maneuver. What likely happened here is that the truck was in the right-most lane and had its turn signal on to notify others of the intent to turn left, but the Bolt either didn’t recognize the turn signal, or didn’t know that the turn signal in this case meant coming across two lanes.
GM’s Cruise cars have been caught in awkward situations before, including getting stuck at an intersection. The NHTSA also opened a special investigation into another Cruise crash a year ago.
