Cruise driverless cars block traffic for two hours

Cruise driverless cars stood still and blocked traffic for two hours on a street in central San Francisco, causing tailbacks, making the area impassable and inhibiting night street-sweeping. 

Approximately 20 Cruise driverless cars blocked several lanes of traffic for two hours at the intersection of Gough Street and Fulton Street in San Francisco, causing congestion and raising concerns about the potential impact on emergency services access.

Cruise attributed the issue to a problem that caused some of their vehicles to "cluster together". However, the company failed to provide specific details about the root cause of the malfunction - a lack of lack of transparency that led to increased scrutiny of the technology's reliability and safety. 

Per WIRED, a Cruise employee later sent an anonymous letter to the California Public Utilities Commission, claiming that Cruise loses communication with the automated vehicles 'with regularity', blocking traffic and potentially hindering emergency vehicles.

The incident occurred one month after Cruise had received approval to operate commercially in the city.