Cruise AV Robotaxi Gets Stuck In Wet Concrete In San Francisco

The driverless car drove only a small distance before the front wheels sank into the freshly poured concrete and became immobilized.

By: Dan Mihalascu

Aug 16, 2023 at 5:00pm ET

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A Cruise AV robotaxi got stuck in wet concrete in San Francisco after entering a construction site on Golden Gate Avenue between Fillmore and Steiner Street.

The Chevrolet Bolt EV-based self-driving car drove only a small distance before the front wheels sank into the freshly poured concrete and became immobilized.

The incident was caught on camera by several passersby and shared on social media. As you can imagine, the comments weren't that favorable to Cruise, with many expressing their doubts about the General Motors-owned company's robotaxis being ready for a full rollout.

Resident Paul Harvey told the San Francisco Gate that he saw the vehicle stuck at a construction site with no passengers inside He said the vehicle probably could not tell that it was about to drive into wet concrete.

"I can see five different scenarios where bad things happen, and this is one of them. It thinks it's a road, and it ain't because it ain't got a brain, and it can't tell that it's freshly poured concrete," Harvey said.

Cruise confirmed the incident in a reply to a post on the social media network X (formerly Twitter) and said it had retrieved the vehicle. The San Francisco resident said he later saw people pulling out the robotaxi from the wet concrete.

"One of our AVs drove into a construction area and stopped in wet concrete. This vehicle has already been recovered and we’re in communication with the city about this," Cruise stated.

This latest mishap involving a Cruise AV comes less than a week after the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) decided to approve the expansion of Cruise and Waymo's self-driving car services in San Francisco around the clock. Previously, robotaxis were only allowed to drive on city streets late at night.

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The incident also comes a few days after ten Cruise AVs blocked a street in San Francisco for about 20 minutes after a wireless connectivity issue caused the vehicles to stop in the middle of the road.

The San Francisco Police Department confirmed that the cell connectivity issues were caused by the large number of people at the Outside Lands music festival.