San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson, a fire chief, is reportedly against robotaxi expansion plans in the city.
Nicholson told the Los Angeles Times she is not against driverless taxi technology, but what is not working now must be fixed before they are released on the rest of the city. They are not ready for prime time, she said.
The report also recounted a case from June 9 when a robotaxi blocked a lane used by emergency responders in the city after a mass shooting. The blockage could have been catastrophic, the fire department said.
The fire department receives 160,000 calls annually and self-driving vehicles provide an added hurdle to solving these emergencies, Nicholson said.
The more vehicles they put on the road, the more incidents we are seeing, the chief of staff told KCBS radio.
State regulators track robotaxi collisions, but not traffic flow issues like street blockages or interference with emergency responders. The Fire Department, however, monitors such incidents, according to the report.
At least 39 reports of robotaxi incidents have been made since Jan. 1, the agency said. While self-driving cars offer advantages such as not getting tired, driving under the influence, or being distracted by phones, they frequently come to sudden stops in traffic for unknown reasons.
In some cases, these roadblocks necessitate a company representative to physically move the vehicle.
In a recent blog, Alphabet Inc's GOOGL GOOG Waymo and General Motors-backed GM Cruise are eyeing expansion across San Francisco without time limitations.
California's Department of Motor Vehicles website said it received 612 autonomous vehicle collision reports as of June 16. This is purely collisions and does not include instances where robotaxis disrupted with firetrucks or caused traffic blocks.
Only last month, it was reported that a Waymo drove in on a crime scene, distracting cops who lit a road flare to stop it. The car eventually landed in the park at the junction.
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