Video shows driverless car speed away from cops during traffic stop

A driverless car sped away from a bewildered San Francisco police officer during a traffic stop, new video footage shows. 

In a bizarre clip posted on April 1, police appear to stop a driverless car for driving at night without using headlights.

The vehicle, which is operated by General Motors subsidiary Cruise, initially pulls over to the side of the road. A police officer gets out of his cruiser, approaches the vehicle and realizes there’s no one in the drivers seat. 

The tries to open the driver’s side door, finds that it’s locked and walks back toward his cruiser. 

The Cruise vehicle then speeds away through an intersection, eliciting screams and laughter from bystanders. The vehicle comes to a stop on the next block. 

“Are you serious?” a bystander says. “How does that happen?” 

3

The police cruiser follows and two officers approach the vehicle before the video ends. 

Despite the apparent chase, Cruise claims the artificial intelligence-powered vehicle behaved as intended. 

“Our [car] yielded to the police vehicle, then pulled over to the nearest safe location for the traffic stop, as intended,” the company wrote on Twitter. “An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no citation was issued.” 

“We work closely with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicles, including a dedicated phone number for them to call in situations like this,” Cruise added. 

3

Cruise referred The Post to its tweets when reached for comment on the incident.

In a statement to The Post, the SFPD said: “Officers stopped behind the vehicle and discovered that there was no driver in the vehicle and no other occupant was present.”

“During the stop officers made contact with the remote operator of the driverless vehicle. Upon the officer’s notification a maintenance team responded to the vehicle’s location and took control of the vehicle. No citation was issued during the traffic stop.”

It’s not the first time San Franciscans have been baffled by the behavior of autonomous cars. 

Last year, dozens of vehicles operated by Google subsidiary Waymo made headlines for continuously driving to a quiet dead-end street, making U-turns and then leaving. 

“It’s literally every five minutes,” one resident told KPIX TV. 

3