Driverless Chevy Bolt Gets Pulled Over For Not Having Its Headlights On

Driverless cars tempt an exciting future. However, getting there will lead to some interesting situations until all bugs are resolved. A video posted to Instagram earlier this month that went viral over the weekend captured such an incident as San Francisco police attempted to pull over the headlightless Chevy Bolt. However, the Bolt is a self-driving vehicle from Cruise, and has no driver behind the wheel.

The video shows Bolt giving up on the cruiser, which stops behind him. An officer came out and peered through Bolt’s window before pulling the handle. The door didn’t open, and the officer started walking back to the car, but then Bolt pulled away. It passed through an intersection before stopping to the side of the road and flashing a flashing hazard light. The officers stopped behind him.

Cruise responded on Twitter to the video, saying the Bolt was operating as intended, first giving in to an emergency vehicle before actually pulling over once activated. According to Cruise’s Twitter post, the company is working closely with the San Francisco Police Department on how to use its vehicles when situations like this arise. Cruise even gave the police a special phone number to call. According to Cruise, police contacted company personnel about the car, and they did not issue a quote.

Autonomous vehicles and cars equipped with advanced driver assistance systems can occupy a legal gray area over who is responsible when a vehicle driven by technology violates the law or is involved in a collision. If legislators don’t know about it in advance, courts can create a patchwork of regulations across the US, which will only complicate AV adoption.

Mercedes is leading the charge, announcing last month that it would accept legal responsibility for the SAE Level 3 Pilot Drive system that allows for complete hands-free driving. However, Mercedes believes there will be hurdles, such as negotiating the law by state. It demonstrates the challenges that autonomous cars will face in the coming years as automakers slowly work to implement the technology.