If you shoot a gun out your window and kill someone who jumped off the building, you are still on the hook for manslaughter.

That is to say, Cruise is still on the hook, even if they didn’t hit the pedestrian in the first place.

What if a brand new, human-driven taxi breaks down, blocking the ambulance? Is the taxi company on the hook?

Did the Cruise robotaxi have a mechanical malfunction? If not, can you try harder to come up with a more relevant whataboutism?

No. Because it’s irrelevant how relevant it is. That’s the entire point.

It could be a stalled car, or a fallen tree.

People get overly concerned with blame attribution, and future prevention, when there is often no fault to begin with.

It’s akin to starting a witch hunt after the bad harvest.

This comment is very selfawarewolves. I agree, people in this thread are overly concerned with blame attribution, but maybe it's not the group you think.

SFFD is highlighting to people who live/work/visit SF that so called "AV" taxis are getting in their way. That they were able to move another vehicle to get the ambulance on its way is immaterial. They are saying that in a different set of circumstances where they can't, this car blocks the ambulance. That's the problem, that's the fault.

Your comment sounds like throwing a ladder on the freeway, but you vigilantes better not stop traffic to clear it, no one has hit it. Yet.

Nah, the reason someone needed an ambulance is totally immaterial here. A person had life-threatening injuries, and Cruise prevented that person from receiving critical treatment. Counterfactually, that person would most likely be alive if the Cruise taxi hadn't been on the street that day.

> Counterfactually, that person would most likely be alive if the Cruise taxi hadn't been on the street that day.

That's a big statement. It sounds like it delayed the ambulance up to 90 seconds. 90 seconds can make a difference, but the patient died "later," and from pretty severe injuries.

What makes you believe this? According to the videos, there were multiple ambulances on the scene and the injured person was on their way to the hospital within 90 seconds.

It’s very likely both are true: Cruise made things more difficult, but didn’t cause enough of an issue to materially change the outcome.

Source: https://sfstandard.com/2023/09/01/person-dies-cruise-robotax...