Cop stops driverless car, driverless car seems to flee, confusion ensues

In the future, police officers have to learn to deal with self-driving cars which may not always cooperate.

The police officers in San Francisco pulled over Cruise's vehicle because its front lights were off. The video shows the officers trying to open the doors of the vehicle before giving up.

After the vehicle takes off, it drives another 30 meters before stopping at the next intersection. After the police follow, they try to open the doors of the car and turn on the lights.

The car behaved as expected according to Cruise.

The car pulled over at the nearest safe location was not fleeing the police, but rather it was pulled over because a human driver could get into a lot of trouble just driving off like that. The reason for the stop was due to the car's lights being off, and the issue has since been fixed.

The video caught the attention of William Gibson, a science fiction writer.

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The situation makes one wonder what the protocol is in situations like this, both on the police officers and the driverless vehicle, and whether new legislation is needed to avoid confusion in the future.

Self-driving cars have caused accidents in traffic before. There were two fatal crashes of self-driving cars in the same year, one of which involved an operator in the driver's seat.

In February of 2022, Cruise will start its self-drive taxi service in San Francisco. The difference is that Cruise's taxis are truly self-driving, while Waymo has a safety driver behind the wheel.