Th3 Core

Apparently the state sets the rules, and it is looking like they will give Waymo and Cruise authority to operate 24/7 anywhere in the city, even though SF officials are trying to stop it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/01/san-francisco-self-driving-taxi-waymo-cruise

I don't believe so. Thus all the stories about them getting stuck for several minutes at a complicated intersection.

Those Cruise vehicles are truly awful, they have about as much situational awareness as a blind toddler.  They'll stop when they aren't suppose to stop, go when they aren't suppose to go, and have no concept of lanes or the flow of traffic.  They enrage everybody who has to share the road with them.   Seriously, a monkey would drive better.

>Is there a driver that can override things?
No, but there is a physical "end ride" button on Cruise cars.

>have about as much situational awareness as a blind toddler.
I had the opposite experience in ATX, thankfully.

>why you would do your testing in huge urban areas
SF and AUS are densely concentrated with VC's, investors, developer talent, and technophiles willing to try new technology. Also, challenging driving environments.

I do see the stories about enraged human drivers. I view robotaxis as student drivers, or chauffeurs in training. Soon they'll be better than humans. They'll help us stay active later in life. Traffic accidents and fatalities will decrease. Hopefully they'll network together and get everyone to their destination faster.

The potential upside heavily outweighs the downside, imo.

Maybe they were testing algorithms or something, but my experience being in a car in San Francisco trying to avoid one of their cars was quite the experience.  It might be the particular environment with busy, windy and hilly roads filled with aggressive drivers that broke it.

My first hand experience this was when they were doing development i guess.  There were always four people sitting in the car, all with masks on and staring blankly ahead, probably our of shame and wanting to avoid eye contact with angry drivers.  The car would do things like move 15mph in a 35 zone while drifting from one lane to another without signaling.  It would roll through stop sings then break in the intersection. It would accelerate, then break for no reason.  I had to swerve once to avoid an accident caused by random movements.  SF is a very hard place to drive, maybe in a place with calm drivers and a simple flat gird pattern it would have been better.