When A Waymo Car Crashed A San Francisco Crime Scene And Left Cops Scratching Their Heads

A vehicle of Alphabet Inc's GOOGL GOOG self-driving startup Waymo in February reportedly drove in on a crime scene, confusing cops who lit a road flare to stop it.

What Happened: On Feb.9, a Waymo car ventured into the middle of a crime scene in San Francisco near 21st Avenue and Noriega Street, Mission Local reported.

A policeman then proceeded to tell the Jaguar SUV to “stay” and placed a road flare in front of it as it was “going to mess up the rescue” to no avail.

"Got a bit of a pickle. Got an autonomous vehicle, the Waymo, it's inching slowly and closely to one of the main water lines that the SF Fire just charged. Can't run it over. Is there a way you can contact a responder to come out and disable this vehicle? I don't trust this AI," the cop said into his radio as recorded by his body-worn camera. The car was eventually shifted into the park at the junction.

Why It Matters: The Mission Local report says it has obtained 15 fire department incident reports where autonomous vehicles interfered with fire vehicles or emergency scenes.

Last month it was reported that five self-driving Waymo vehicles pulled over in San Francisco's Balboa Terrace due to dense fog, causing a disruption in traffic. 

A few days before that, Cruise LLC, a rival of Waymo backed by General Motors Co GM, recalled 300 Automated Driving Systems due to an issue that caused a Cruise AV to collide with a San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority bus on March 23.

More recently, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton said he has quit his job at Google so he can talk more freely about the risks posed by the technology.

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