Tech

Driverless car appears to flee the scene after being pulled over by cops

Cruise's driverless Bolt EVs are a common sight in San Francisco.

Enlarge / Cruise’s driverless Bolt EVs are a common sight in San Francisco. (credit: Cruise)

A video showing a driverless car being stopped by the particular police and then attempting to drive away went viral more than the weekend. San Francisco police stopped one of Cruise’s autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EVs, likely because typically the car’s headlights were not on despite it being night. In this video, first posted to Instagram on April 2 , an officer can be heard saying, “There’s nobody in it. ”

But a few seconds later, after the officer walks back to his police car, often the autonomous vehicle—perhaps deciding that your traffic stop was over—tries in order to drive away before pulling above to a stop a few hundred feet away.

Cruise says that the car wasn’t trying to make a run for it. The vehicle first yielded to the exact police vehicle, then pulled around to a safe spot for the actual traffic stop, the company says. One of the law enforcement officers contacted Cruise to inform it of the situation, and the driverless car did not receive a ticket. Cruise says it has fixed whatever caused the very car to drive without its headlights at night.

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