Double parking is extremely common for a garbage truck in that situation (picking up along a crowded road).
And yes, I absolutely would have checked my rear view mirror, then reversed (slowly).
Or tried to move over as much as possible to the right.
Or depending on the road and my position, U-turned and pulled in front of the garbage truck. Lots of options, blocking the firetruck not being high on the list.
You claim this, but have you ever been in that situation before? Backing up on a road with traffic is extremely dangerous, and I'm not sure I could do it while under the stress of an emergency vehicle situation. There was no room to U-turn (if there was, the fire truck would have been able to get through), and I'm guessing parked cars on the side of the road prevented any kind of "moving further to the right".
Yes, I have backed up for emergency vehicles in the past. (and gone through red lights if necessary and pulled all the way off on shoulder and crossed double yellow line... - all of things an bot might not have done). I've been driving for 3 decades, most of it in an extremely congested area, so it happens.
There might have been room to U-turn for the automated vehicle. Bit of ascii art here
===DUMPTRUCK==
BOT===FIRETRUCK
Bot, in that situation can U-Turn. Perhaps maybe back up a metre or two first (let's pretend there was another car or two there but there was a metre or two to backup - although if bot slowly backed with hazard lights on and honking a car behind them hopefully would have too - maybe no U-Turn necessary). Yet there would be absolutely no way for a (large) firetruck to get through. Point is, require's a human's full awareness of world and flexible thinking and when it is appropriate to break the rules (rule of arriving at destination, rules of road conduct). These bots still don't have the neural complexity of a crow, much less a human (probably not even that of a goldfish really). They are ok at the predictable but that's it.
I have no doubt they'll get there eventually, at which point we might be having another ethical conversation about what a AGI should be allowed to do with its life, but they aren't there yet...
It is a two lane road constricted with packed street parking on both sides of the road. This being SF, even in the best situation where there isn't a garbage truck double parked in the other lane, I'm sure a U turn isn't feasible, or even a 3 point turn around. Backing up was the only option, yet the road is two lane, so more traffic than a residential one lane coming from behind is also a concern.
