Seven Waymo robotaxis blocked site visitors transferring onto the Potrero Avenue 101 on-ramp in San Francisco on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m., in accordance with video of the incident posted to Reddit and affirmation from Waymo.

Whereas routing again to Waymo’s metropolis depot that night, the primary robotaxi within the lineup got here throughout a street closure with site visitors cones. The one different path out there to the autos was to take the freeway, in accordance with a Waymo spokesperson. California regulators not too long ago permitted Waymo to function its autonomous robotaxi service on San Francisco freeways with no human driver, however the firm continues to be solely testing on freeways with a human driver within the entrance seat. Waymo informed TechCrunch it’s first prioritizing a secure and gradual scale of rider-only freeway operations in Arizona earlier than advancing in California.

After hitting the street closure, the primary Waymo car within the lineup then pulled over out of the site visitors lane that was blocked by cones, adopted by six different Waymo robotaxis. Human-driven automobiles have been then caught behind among the robotaxis; a video posted on-line exhibits fed-up drivers getting out of their automobiles to bodily transfer the cones out of the way in which so they may cross each the street closure and the stalled Waymos.

Waymo informed TechCrunch it instantly dispatched its Roadside Help group to manually retrieve the autos and that the entire occasion lasted not than half-hour.

It’s not the primary time Waymo autos have triggered a street blockage, however that is the primary documented incident involving a freeway. Cruise, GM’s autonomous car subsidiary, has come beneath scrutiny for a number of instances of its autos malfunctioning and blocking site visitors, first responders and public transit. In fact, human drivers block site visitors on a regular basis, however metropolis officers and first responders in San Francisco have expressed frustration with each not having the ability to entry and transfer robotaxis once they’re in the way in which and never having the ability to situation site visitors citations to the autos. In San Francisco, there should be a driver within the automotive to be able to situation a quotation.