6 ms·

"We work closely with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicles and have a dedicated phone number for them to call in situations like this.” And yes, that

"We work closely with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicles and have a dedicated phone number for them to call in situations like this.” And yes, that seems thoroughly impractical at scale.

shafyy 5y ago
Ok. So I guess the SFPD has been tailing the Cruise car, called the number, and then Cruise personnel made it pull over remotely?
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  If that's the case then it's pretty impractical and double standard vs a human driver who needs to pull over immediately when instructed by the police or face potentially grave consequences if he doesn't immediately comply. When I'm at the wheel, I can't just tell the cop tailing me "yeah officer, I didn't pull over when you told me to behause you should have called me on my cell to tell me that" lol.
  - hericium 5y ago
    > double standard vs a human driver who needs to pull over immediately when instructed by the police or face potentially grave consequences Especially where Police is so hasty to use their cruisers as weapons[1] [1] https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/10/arkansas-police-rammed-pregnant-womans-suv-traffic-stop-lawsuit/7645474002/ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/10/arkansa...
    - soco 5y ago
      On an unrelated note: why are the US police cars called "cruisers"? Are they a different category so to say?
      - justsomehnguy 5y ago
        The best description is on the first result from search: > Police cars are called cruisers because that is what they do. They cruise about town, looking for trouble, and responding to those requiring assistance. Doubt the original poster meant any irony there, but... Still, Webster: > cruiser, noun: > 1 : a vehicle that _cruises_: such as > a : squad car > cruise, verb: > 1 : to sail about touching at a series of ports > 4 a : to go about the streets at random but on the lookout for possible developments So probably it is the origin. Wonder if there are similar designations in other languages. In my native one the term 'cruise' is restricted only for sail (as in v., 1 definition in Webster), so it could never be applied to a police car roaming the streets.
        dotancohen 5y ago
        > In my native one the term 'cruise' is restricted only for sail Do you not used a cognate word for "Cruise control" in your language? In Hebrew "Shait" is used for sail, but also for the idea of cruise control and a cruise missile. I cannot think of any other uses, not even for patrol vehicles.
        dagw 5y ago
        In Swedish at least the 'cruise' when talking about in ships and missiles is the same word, but "cruise control" is a completely different word (literally "speed holder"). You can't "cruise" in you car in Swedish.
        jaclaz 5y ago
        In Italy our police cars are much faster, a police car is usually called "volante" (literally "flying"), the more correct name is "autopattuglia" which is more like "patrol car". Then we have the two different animal derived names, police cars are "pantere" (panthers) and the Carabinieri ones are "gazzelle" (gazelles). As well you can't cruise with a car, the cruise control (often untranslated) is a "regolatore di velocità" (speed regulator), but you can actually mantain a "velocità di crociera" (cruise speed) on a vehicle.
bschne 5y ago
I'm guessing the plan is that once you reach that scale there will be people in the cars?
- thematrixturtle 5y ago
  How can a passenger force a fully autonomous taxi to pull over? And what happens when the passenger is in the driver's seat and the police think they are resisting orders?
  - ulimn 5y ago
    I would be certainly terrified if the car didn't pull over and I would see cops chasing me. And all I could do was watch.
    - gregoriol 5y ago
      Next thing you hear is shots and glass breaking sounds. Not sure you hear much more though.
  - bschne 5y ago
    Pretty sure you'd have some sort of "gracefully pull over" and "hard emergency stop" options in those once they are actually used for passengers? There's other reasons than police stops you would want to have the option.
em500 5y ago
The scalable solution would be that law enforcement will be given a direct override/pull-over button for any driverless car. I expect this to happen in the future if driverless cars reach large volumes. Maybe I haven't thought this through enough, but I can't imagine a circumstance where you would want a driverless car to be able to ignore stopping directions from law enforcement.
- markdown 5y ago
  > I can't imagine a circumstance where you would want a driverless car to be able to ignore stopping directions from law enforcement. Funny, I can't imagine a circumstance where I would want "law enforcement" to be able to override my directions and take control of my car.
  - shubb 5y ago
    Do you want number plates? Mine have never helped me get anything except for parking fines, but lawmakers decided being able to visually and uniquely identify a car for the purposes of law enforcement was more important than my privacy because it enabled widespread use of this dangerous and strictly regulated machinery. You can own a car without number plates, you just can't drive it on a public road. Presumably similar with this hypothetical kill switch. Requiring compliance with rules for access to a shared resource doesn't seem that ethically challenging when you think about it.
  - em500 5y ago
    Ok, I'm guessing you're American. I've read that the relationship between the police and the public can be a bit .. antagonistic. And I know that fugitives are disproportionately romanticized in fiction. But police officers giving you stopping directions are already overriding your directions and taking control of your car, fully backed by law and and force if necessary. Only with a very inefficient implementation.
    - bregma 5y ago
      And, like guns, only the police will ever use this weapon and only for the purposes of public good.
asah 5y ago
Actually, I'd expect driverless cars to rarely get pulled over by police, so in fact this scales fine.

"We work closely with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicles and have a dedicated phone number for them to call in situations like this.” And yes, that seems thoroughly impractical at scale.

shafyy 5y ago

Ok. So I guess the SFPD has been tailing the Cruise car, called the number, and then Cruise personnel made it pull over remotely?

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
If that's the case then it's pretty impractical and double standard vs a human driver who needs to pull over immediately when instructed by the police or face potentially grave consequences if he doesn't immediately comply. When I'm at the wheel, I can't just tell the cop tailing me "yeah officer, I didn't pull over when you told me to behause you should have called me on my cell to tell me that" lol.
- hericium 5y ago
  > double standard vs a human driver who needs to pull over immediately when instructed by the police or face potentially grave consequences Especially where Police is so hasty to use their cruisers as weapons[1] [1] https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/10/arkansas-police-rammed-pregnant-womans-suv-traffic-stop-lawsuit/7645474002/ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/10/arkansa...
  - soco 5y ago
    On an unrelated note: why are the US police cars called "cruisers"? Are they a different category so to say?
    - justsomehnguy 5y ago
      The best description is on the first result from search: > Police cars are called cruisers because that is what they do. They cruise about town, looking for trouble, and responding to those requiring assistance. Doubt the original poster meant any irony there, but... Still, Webster: > cruiser, noun: > 1 : a vehicle that _cruises_: such as > a : squad car > cruise, verb: > 1 : to sail about touching at a series of ports > 4 a : to go about the streets at random but on the lookout for possible developments So probably it is the origin. Wonder if there are similar designations in other languages. In my native one the term 'cruise' is restricted only for sail (as in v., 1 definition in Webster), so it could never be applied to a police car roaming the streets.
      - dotancohen 5y ago
        > In my native one the term 'cruise' is restricted only for sail Do you not used a cognate word for "Cruise control" in your language? In Hebrew "Shait" is used for sail, but also for the idea of cruise control and a cruise missile. I cannot think of any other uses, not even for patrol vehicles.
        dagw 5y ago
        In Swedish at least the 'cruise' when talking about in ships and missiles is the same word, but "cruise control" is a completely different word (literally "speed holder"). You can't "cruise" in you car in Swedish.
        jaclaz 5y ago
        In Italy our police cars are much faster, a police car is usually called "volante" (literally "flying"), the more correct name is "autopattuglia" which is more like "patrol car". Then we have the two different animal derived names, police cars are "pantere" (panthers) and the Carabinieri ones are "gazzelle" (gazelles). As well you can't cruise with a car, the cruise control (often untranslated) is a "regolatore di velocità" (speed regulator), but you can actually mantain a "velocità di crociera" (cruise speed) on a vehicle.

bschne 5y ago

I'm guessing the plan is that once you reach that scale there will be people in the cars?

thematrixturtle 5y ago
How can a passenger force a fully autonomous taxi to pull over? And what happens when the passenger is in the driver's seat and the police think they are resisting orders?
- ulimn 5y ago
  I would be certainly terrified if the car didn't pull over and I would see cops chasing me. And all I could do was watch.
  - gregoriol 5y ago
    Next thing you hear is shots and glass breaking sounds. Not sure you hear much more though.
- bschne 5y ago
  Pretty sure you'd have some sort of "gracefully pull over" and "hard emergency stop" options in those once they are actually used for passengers? There's other reasons than police stops you would want to have the option.

em500 5y ago

The scalable solution would be that law enforcement will be given a direct override/pull-over button for any driverless car. I expect this to happen in the future if driverless cars reach large volumes. Maybe I haven't thought this through enough, but I can't imagine a circumstance where you would want a driverless car to be able to ignore stopping directions from law enforcement.

markdown 5y ago
> I can't imagine a circumstance where you would want a driverless car to be able to ignore stopping directions from law enforcement. Funny, I can't imagine a circumstance where I would want "law enforcement" to be able to override my directions and take control of my car.
- shubb 5y ago
  Do you want number plates? Mine have never helped me get anything except for parking fines, but lawmakers decided being able to visually and uniquely identify a car for the purposes of law enforcement was more important than my privacy because it enabled widespread use of this dangerous and strictly regulated machinery. You can own a car without number plates, you just can't drive it on a public road. Presumably similar with this hypothetical kill switch. Requiring compliance with rules for access to a shared resource doesn't seem that ethically challenging when you think about it.
- em500 5y ago
  Ok, I'm guessing you're American. I've read that the relationship between the police and the public can be a bit .. antagonistic. And I know that fugitives are disproportionately romanticized in fiction. But police officers giving you stopping directions are already overriding your directions and taking control of your car, fully backed by law and and force if necessary. Only with a very inefficient implementation.
  - bregma 5y ago
    And, like guns, only the police will ever use this weapon and only for the purposes of public good.

asah 5y ago

Actually, I'd expect driverless cars to rarely get pulled over by police, so in fact this scales fine.