Autonomous vehicles are facing massive backlashes after GM's Cruise blocked an ambulance

Autonomous vehicles are experiencing mainstream adoption in the market, but currently, there have been several controversies regarding the use of self-driving cars in the real world. And quite rightly so, these controversies have some meaning behind them. A few days ago, early in the morning, a San Francisco Fire Department truck was responding to a fire and tried to pass a doubled-parked garbage truck by using the opposite lane. But, all of a sudden, an autonomous car, manufactured by General Motors' subsidiary Cruise without any driver tried to block its way. If the car had a driver boarded in it, they would have diverted the car into an opposite lane, this GM-powered autonomous car stayed right there! Now this sort of headline really demotivates car fanatics to explore the self-driving car domain, and also might cause a huge financial loss to the automobile companies.

The Cruise vehicle stayed put and the situation was only resolved after a garbage truck driver returned swiftly to the vehicle and was finally able to move it. Even though the problem was solved quite quickly, it still jeopardized the life of the patient who had summoned an ambulance during an emergency. Experts believe that this incident clearly demonstrated how insensitive self-driving cars can be. Even though AI is reaching a more ethical and conscious position, its adjoining technologies are still a long way away from its advancements.

This incident has also sparked several questions about AV's ability to handle emergency cases in which something unexpected happens on the road. The inability of an autonomous car to respond in the same instantaneous way as humans have caused massive disruptions and debates in the automobile industry. The 'level 5' autonomy is quite far off but until then automobile companies should implement some sort of security system that would enable these cars to act instantly in an emergency.