San Francisco fire chief says driverless cars are getting in the way of first responders

A new battle is brewing in San Francisco between driverless cars and the city's fire chief.

High-tech progress stands on one hand, with growing concern on the opposite side that self-driving vehicles are dangerous and delay emergency vehicles driven by fist responders.

"I'm not anti-technology. What I am anti is getting in the way of public safety when we're trying to do our jobs," San Francisco Fire Department Chief Jeanine Nicholson said. "And that's what's been happening time and time again."

The concerns come a week before state regulators vote on whether to allow autonomous cars to expand their services in San Francisco. The fire chief would rather officials hit the brakes on allowing such a move to happen.

Nicholson said the driverless vehicles from companies like Waymo and Cruise are literally getting in her way. The most recent example occurred June 9 when a Cruise vehicle stopped on its own near a shooting in the city's Mission District. The fire department said it has logged nearly 40 incidents with robotaxis since January 1.

"We've seen these vehicles run over our hoses and get them caught in the wheel wells," Nicholson said. "We've seen them stop in front of two different fire stations now, blocking our fire engines from getting out to calls."

Waymo and Cruise said they continue to work on refining the vehicles and improving their safety records.

Tech watchers like Adam Kovakevich of the Chamber of Progress said he believes the driverless cars are likely to make things more safe for people, not less.

"Yeah, there will probably be some incidents -- far fewer incidents than there are human accidents," Kovakevich said. "But in general my prediction is that several months from now we'll look back on this and say 'Why did we ever worry that much about autonomous vehicles in San Francisco?'"

Meanwhile, Nicholson said she can wait.

"I would say please, hit the pause button," she said.