Cast your minds back to the times we — as big brained humans — have given machines a shred of autonomy. There was cop robot that got its hardwired ass handed to it by some drunk bozo. And lest we forget the security robot that, upon being gifted intelligence, immediately chucked itself in a fountain to drown itself.
Well, it has happened again. On the other side of the narc bot coin, a driverless car attempted to flee after being pulled over by a (human) cop in San Francisco.
A General Motors Cruise — a type of autonomous taxi — was spotted driving around sat night without its headlights on in the Californian city this week. A San Fran police officer spotted the car trundling along, popped his lights on and pulled it over. When the cop approached the driver’s side window of the car it was suddenly apparent that it didn’t have a human person (or any other person) actually driving it.
Then, just as suddenly as it had stopped, the empty car took off down the road. Perhaps the robot car wanted to live out its programmed Grand Theft Auto dreams, or maybe Brum really did say ACAB.
Welcome to the future. Cop pulls over driverless car (because no lights?) Then Cruise goes on the lamb. (via https://t.co/mtmsIeOAUP) pic.twitter.com/ecQ5xXuSnS
— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) April 10, 2022
The car who think too much eventually stopped again a short way away from the police car and popped its hazard lights on like a responsible road user. Apparently it wasn’t trying to evade being (somehow) cuffed by the cops and instead was just trying to pull over in a safer and less obstructive location.
Chiming in with more details: our AV yielded to the police vehicle, then pulled over to the nearest safe location for the traffic stop, as intended. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no citation was issued.
— cruise (@Cruise) April 10, 2022
At least that’s what the humans behind the robots want us to believe.
