The San Francisco Muni transit agency directed its drivers to make careful records of disruptions caused by the Cruise and Waymo self-driving robotaxis operating on San Francisco streets. We’ve seen a number of reports online, in regular and social media, of blockages and incidents, including the recent crash between a Cruise and a bus. As a result many have written as though there is a serious problem. But anecdotes are not the same as data.

Wired magazine recently dug into Muni’s records and videos. Their headline says the opposite of what the data recovered say:

“Agency logs show 12 ‘driverless’ reports from September 2022 through March 8, 2023, … Overall, the incidents resulted in at least 83 minutes of direct delays for Muni riders, records show.”…

Considering the volume of traffic, having just 12 incidents in 6 months is an astonishingly good record, much better than many were led to believe by the anecdotal reports.