Cruise autonomous vehicle with no human driver pulled over by San Francisco police

In a quiet San Francisco neighborhood earlier this month, three police officers stopped an autonomous vehicle driving with its headlights off and were captured on video trying to communicate with the car which had no human driver.

The car’s owner, General Motors-backed Cruise Automation, has been rolling out its robotaxi service in the city since February.  The company said in a tweet that it’s been cooperating with law enforcement:

“We work closely with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicles, including a dedicated phone number for them to call in situations like this,” the company said. Cruise later tweeted that the car did as intended by pulling over to the nearest safe location where  officers could contact the company and the vehicle wasn’t issued a citation.

Cruise fixed the issue that led to the traffic stop, a spokesperson told Bloomberg.

Cruise was founded in 2013 and has since raised $10 billion in funding from GM, Honda, Microsoft, T. Rowe Price and Walmart.

It is currently valued at over $30 billion. On March 18, GM bought out SoftBank’s stake giving it 80 percent ownership in the company. 

In an interview with Bloomberg, former Cruise CEO Dan Ammann said its ride-hauling business is expected to reach $50 billion in revenue over the next couple of years. It plans to start charging for rides this year or next, depending on regulatory approvals.