Around 2 a.m. on March 19, Adam Wood, a San Francisco firefighter, responded to a 911 call in the city’s Mission neighborhood. He assisted a man who was having a medical emergency. However, when he attempted to transport the patient to the hospital, a driverless vehicle operated by Waymo, an autonomous car company, blocked the path. Despite communicating with a remote operator, the ambulance was delayed by seven minutes, forcing it to back up to avoid the autonomous vehicles. Wood said that self-driving taxis are starting to take a toll on city services, with San Francisco and Austin experiencing slowed emergency response times, accidents, and increased congestion due to the presence of autonomous vehicles.Passenger self-driving taxis have caused over 600 incidents in San Francisco and 52 in Austin. San Francisco has designated a city employee to work on autonomous car policies and created a database of incidents. Other cities, such as Nashville and Seattle, are taking steps to prepare firefighters and other officials for how to handle self-driving car incidents. While some cities have had smoother experiences with autonomous vehicles, San Francisco has struggled due to the large presence of driverless vehicles. Even efforts to train firefighters to handle stalled self-driving cars have been disappointing. Waymo has since rolled out a software update that allows local authorities to take control of their vehicles within seconds. Despite ongoing discussions between the city’s emergency management departments and self-driving car companies, concerns remain about the impact of autonomous vehicles on emergency services. With other self-driving companies looking to enter the market, San Francisco and other cities may continue to face challenges in dealing with self-driving cars.
