[ExI] Cruise robot taxis in San Francisco

[BillK]

BBC TV have just shown one of their reporters having a ride in one of
the Cruise Bolt self-driving taxis. His trip visited three locations
in SF and returned to the start successfully.
That's the good news.
But the reporter didn't enjoy the trip. He found it unnerving because the
car didn't drive like a human. Sometimes it stopped, hesitated, then
decided how to proceed. Some movements were jerky and he thought some
route choices were strange.
There have also been news reports of Cruise cars stopping in the
middle of the road and putting their hazard lights on until rescued by
an engineer from the base station.

Cruise said that the car AI is designed to be extra safe. That's why
it hesitated sometimes. If there is a fault, or it really can't work
out what to do then it is designed to just stop and put the hazard
lights on. Safety first!

So it seems that more work is needed to make these robot cars
acceptable to mixing with human traffic.

BillK