A San Franciscan transport advocacy group, Safe Street Rebel, has found a novel way to further its aims.
Share with friends
The group, which by its own account “fight for car-free spaces, transit equity and the end of car dominance”, believes “people, community and park space must be prioritised over polluting, dangerous and murderous vehicles”.
Earlier this week, as part of its “Week of Cone”-campaign, a Tik Tok video posted by the group went viral. In the video, the group encourages its followers, who are opposed to autonomous vehicles (AVs), to start placing the city’s many orange traffic cones on their hoods to disable them.
Over and above being a protest, it is also a way to highlight an important decision by the state regulator on whether to significantly expand robo-taxi services that were due to be made on July 13. This has been delayed until August 10, and Safe Street Rebel believes the delay is a sign of the success of the campaign.
The San Francisco Standard reported that the cones immobilise the autonomous vehicles by forcing them into “shutdown mode” with their hazard lights on, “until the cone is removed, or a company technician comes to reset the car’s system”.
For a substantial amount of time, Google’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise AVs have been causing havoc on the streets of San Francisco, including incidents where the vehicles interfered with emergency response teams and the killing of a dog.
Concerned activists also feel the AVs have become a new form of ubiquitous surveillance to aid the police department.
The fight for the wallets of South African motorists continues with Renault’s Kwid, which has been repositioned and with a new naming convention celebrating 10 years on our roads with around 70 000 units sold.
The uptake of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) continues to gain momentum in South Africa, spurred on by the introduction of more affordable models into the local market.
South Africa is a large country but with refuelling stations nearly everywhere across towns, cities and even in remote rural areas, enough provision has been made for all types of vehicles to refuel somewhere.
The Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, Leapmotor, has entered South Africa and its vehicles will soon be available at selected Stellantis dealerships across the country.