First Experience With a Cruise Robotaxi Backing Up

During on of my rides with a Cruise Robotaxi in San Francisco, we witnessed the cruise backing up to make space for another car trying to parallel park. As we can see from the monitors on the inside, a remote operator is helping the car to back up. But not by taking control and remotely steering it, but rather by instructing the car through text prompts to back up.

Backing back is currently one of the maneuvers that we do not see, or only very rarely, in autonomous vehicles like Cruise. Other maneuvers that have not yet been performed include turning right at a red light, which is permitted in California.

This article was also published in German.