Video Catches Fleet of Self-Driving Cars Devolving into Chaos near Outside Lands Music Festival

Just one day after California regulators approved the expansion of self-driving taxi services, San Francisco residents experienced a bizarre traffic jam, when a fleet of unmanned cabs suddenly stopped driving for 15 minutes.

Video footage of the Friday evening standstill shows cars parked at random intervals in the road, with their hazard lights blinking, while confused drivers and pedestrians wait for the jam to end. 

Cruise, the company that owns the self-driving taxis, blamed the disruption on the nearby Outside Lands music festival, which they say used up so much bandwidth that the cars could no longer connect to the internet. 

The incident followed the California Public Utilities Commission’s Thursday vote to allow the expansion of the robo-taxi industry. Before the expansion, self-driving taxis were allowed on the roads – but only if they didn’t charge fares. Now autonomous cars can be treated like any other cab service. 

The 3-to-1 vote was already subject to controversy from San Francisco leaders, including the mayor, the fire chief and the police, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Among other issues, the San Francisco Fire Department noted that there are at least 55 incidences of self-driving taxis interfering with first responders. 

The traffic jam and Cruise’s explanation created additional concerns for city officials. 

“The take-home is a scary revelation in that if cell phone coverage goes out, they can’t communicate with their cars at the same time the city would be trying to maintain order,” Aaron Peskin, the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, told the San Francisco Chronicle. 

“If you have an earthquake, they will be sitting like bricks on your street and there is no way to communicate with them at the precise moment you need them.”