Autonomous Car Pulled Over By Cops, Makes a Run For It
... It remains something of an open question who is at fault or held liable in an accident, for example—the carmaker? The owner of the car? What happens if or when an autonomous car commits a moving violation on public roads? The San Francisco Police Department unwittingly became party to this thought exercise when one of its units tried pulling over a GM Cruise autonomous vehicle ...
The Cruise vehicle, which is based on a Chevrolet Bolt electric hatchback, initially stops for the officers attempting the traffic stop. Amusingly, not long after one of the officers exits the police car to approach the self-driving Bolt, the Chevy, ahem, bolts—slowly driving through an intersection before pulling over again and activating its flashers. The police catch up to the Bolt, which presumably pulled over the second time because the cops activated their emergency lights, and proceed to walk around the now-parked Chevy while making calls on their phones. ...
Apparently, there is a special phone number officers must call when they're interacting with one of the Cruise vehicles. That could have been what the officer seen on the phone ... was doing, meaning the officers were less "confused" than bemused and milling around waiting for direction, checking out the Bolt up close while their colleague contacted the relevant resources. And the brief "chase," such as it was, between the police and the car? Well, per the Cruise tweet above, it was the Bolt merely finding a new place to pull over, though it's amusing to think it was making a break for it ...