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- Some self-driving Cruise cars created a traffic jam when they stalled in San Francisco on Friday night.
- This was just one day after California officials approved huge expansions to Cruise's operations in SF.
- Cruise said the Outside Lands festival had caused "delayed connectivity" to its autonomous vehicles.
Self-driving Cruise cars stalled in San Francisco on Friday night, leading to a bizarre traffic jam captured on video.
This came just one day after the California Public Utilities Commission gave Cruise, owned by General Motors, and Waymo, owned by Google, the go-ahead to offer fare-charging driverless rides in San Francisco at any hour of day.
Videos posted on X, the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter, by user @friscolive415 show a number of stalled Cruise cars with their hazard lights blinking in the city's North Beach area, causing cars driven by humans to be brought to a halt, too.
The user said that it looked like Cruise's self-driving operations had a "complete meltdown." Reports suggest that around 10 Cruise cars were involved in the buildup, which is said to have lasted for about 15 or 20 minutes.
Cruise said that "a large festival posed wireless bandwidth constraints causing delayed connectivity to our vehicles." That night, Kendrick Lamar and Janelle Monáe were headlining the Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park.
Cruise said that it was investigating what happened on Friday night and working on solutions to stop it from happening again.
The San Francisco Standard reported that Cruise cars also stalled on other streets near Golden Gate Park that night, leading to a road closure.
CPUC's decision on Thursday has sparked criticism from some local residents and groups who worry about the impacts driverless robotaxis could have on public safety, such as blocking access for emergency services.
"Why do state commissioners think it's OK to put people in danger + create traffic chaos on our neighborhoods streets?" Aaron Peskin, who sits on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing North Beach, posted on X, alongside a video of the traffic buildup.
He told The Los Angeles Times that he was inundated with texts, emails, and videos from constituents about the stalled cars.
"We don't need them here, we did fine before they came here," local resident Jeffrey Bilbrey told KPIX, speaking about the autonomous vehicles.
Cruise and CPUC did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of regular working hours.
"While we do not yet have the data to judge AVs against the standard human drivers are setting, I do believe in the potential of this technology to increase safety on the roadway," CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds said in a statement accompanying its approval of the vehicles, noting that collaboration between key stakeholders in the industry and the first responder community was "vital."