A woman is in critical condition after being found trapped underneath a driverless car Monday night in San Francisco.
Rescuers found the woman pinned underneath the Autonomous Vehicle’s (AV) left rear axle and used hydraulic rescue tools to free her, CBS News reported. She was then taken to the hospital where her exact status remains unknown, the outlet noted. (RELATED: REPORT: German Court Deems Tesla Autopilot A ‘Massive Danger’ And Forces Company To Reimburse Customer)
San Francisco Police Department Officer Robert Rueca told ABC7 News that “[a]t the very minimum, we are canvassing the area for witnesses, for surveillance video, for any video that may have been captured by any personal individuals, as well as the technology that’s utilized in the vehicle itself.”
A woman is seriously injured after being struck by a human-driven car that “launched” her in front of a Cruise autonomous vehicle, the robotaxi company says. SFFD then had to lift the car off of the woman, who was trapped under. https://t.co/t2QA8aARYB
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) October 3, 2023
Cruise, the robotaxi company, insisted in a Twitter post that it was a human-driven car that initially hit the woman and “launched” her right in front of the driverless taxi. ” The company further tweeted that their vehicle “then braked aggressively to minimize the impact. The driver of the other vehicle fled the scene.” Cruise claimed that they were actively working with the police to identify the human driver responsible for this accident.
(1/3) At approximately 9:30 pm on October 2, a human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV. The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV.
— cruise (@Cruise) October 3, 2023
San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Justin Schorr told CNN that the company has been cooperating with the police and added that Cruise cars come with their own cameras and collect telemetric data that may help the investigation. “It’s a very unique type of response for San Francisco,” Schorr told CNN about this case.
The company shared with ABC7 a video from the crash in question that purportedly showed that their AV was not responsible for the first collision with the victim. Cruise asked the outlet not to record the video lest it compromise an ongoing police investigation into the matter. Cruise officials did maintain to the news outlet that their car did operate as they designed it.