Lessons from the Cruise Robotaxi Pedestrian Dragging Mishap

TL;DR

A robotaxi incident in San Francisco involved complex failures in detection and decision-making, leading to a pedestrian being dragged, highlighting safety and regulatory challenges in autonomous vehicle deployment.

Contribution

This paper analyzes a specific autonomous vehicle mishap, identifying technical and operational failures that contributed to the incident and discussing implications for safety improvements.

Findings

Multiple avoidance options were available but not utilized.

Programming limitations prevented pedestrian recognition in certain scenarios.

Operational strategies could have prevented the mishap altogether.

Abstract

A robotaxi dragged a pedestrian 20 feet down a San Francisco street on the evening of October 2, 2023, coming to rest with its rear wheel on that woman's legs. The mishap was complex, involving a first impact by a different, human-driven vehicle. The following weeks saw Cruise stand down its road operations amid allegations of withholding crucial mishap information from regulators. The pedestrian has survived her severe injuries, but the robotaxi industry is still wrestling with the aftermath. Key observations include that the robotaxi had multiple possible ways available to avoid initial impact with the pedestrian. Limitations to the computer driver's programming prevented it from recognizing a pedestrian was about to be hit in an adjacent lane, caused the robotaxi to lose tracking of and then in essence forget a pedestrian who was hit by an adjacent vehicle, and forget that the robotaxi had just run over a presumed pedestrian when beginning a subsequent repositioning maneuver. The computer driver was unable to detect the pedestrian being dragged even though her legs were partially in view of a robotaxi camera. Moreover, more conservative operational approaches could have avoided the dragging portion of the mishap entirely, such as waiting for remote confirmation before moving after a crash with a pedestrian, or operating the still-developing robotaxi technology with an in-vehicle safety driver rather than prioritizing driver-out deployment.