Viral video: Police pull over a driverless car during a traffic stop in San Francisco

The reason?

The vehicle stopped by police had no driver.

The driverless car was pulled over for driving at night without its headlights on.

At first glance, it looks like an ordinary traffic stop.

An officer gets out of his car to speak to the driver – only to find there is no driver.

“Ain’t nobody in it!” says the Instagram user who records the video.

And then the car sped away from the officers, passing an intersection before stopping again.

Several officers then approach to inspect the car.

Cruise, the company that operates the car and is majority-owned by General Motors, tweeted: “Our autonomous vehicle dodged the police vehicle and then proceeded to the nearest safe location. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no subpoena was issued. “

Cruise won approval to operate its driverless taxis in part of the city earlier this year.

Another company, Waymo, also offers driverless rides in San Francisco.

“The reason there are so few of these companies and vehicles on the road is because there is a lot to offer from this technology. So controlling for the environment is one thing, and controlling for just other road users is quite another thing,” said Kelly Funkhouser, manager of automotive engineering at Consumer Reports.

Cruise says it has a special phone number that the police can call if there’s a problem with its cars.

In this latest case, a maintenance team from the company responded and took control of the car.