Should Driverless Cars Continue to Be Tested WayMo Often When Real Lives Are At Stake?

ACCORDING TO LIZ - Multiple incidents have forced multiple Waymo recalls in less than a year caused by flooded roads, unexpected telephone poles, chains and gates, tow trucks, and school buses.

Should this experiment putting people at risk proceed any further?

In January, a Waymo robotaxi struck a child near Grant Elementary School in Santa Monica who “suddenly entered the roadway… moving directly into our vehicle’s path” during morning drop-off hours.

Only minor injuries. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still investigating, and Waymo’s responses are redacted from published reports because of the company’s “confidentiality” concerns.

I’d be concerned, too.

Cross-country complaints about dozens of Waymos illegally passing stopped school buses are also in crosshairs of the Safety Administration.

In yet another speed bump for Alphabet, Inc.’s glitch-plagued robotaxi subsidiary, Waymo recalled 3,800 autonomous taxis after identifying a bug that allowed the vehicles to drive into standing water.

Service in San Antonio was suspended in April after an incident when a vehicle ventured into a flooded section of road, slowed down but didn’t stop. And was swept into Salado Creek to be recovered days later. Luckily, no passengers were on board.

Robotaxis were also shut off in Austin where eleven days later a Waymo refused to drive through a shallow puddle snarling traffic, while south of the city center two others entered flooded roadways then refused to budge. 

On May 21, the company closed down services entirely in Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston as severe weather swept through the region.

A software patch pushed out to its entire fleet less than two weeks earlier had failed to stop another autonomous vehicle from driving directly into standing water, this time stalling out in midtown Atlanta before a human could recover it an hour later.

The same day, Waymo suspended rides involving freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami after reports of its vehicles ignoring highway construction zone signage. Waymo then halted its entire fleet of nearly 4,000 robotaxis from driving on freeways after identifying at least 13 instances where its vehicles drove straight into highway sections closed for construction. 

An April incident in Arizona had six robotaxis plunge past ramp-closure postings directly into active construction zones in Phoenix when their software failed to recognize the signs’ significance. 

In May, seven more avoided other highway hazards in the Bay Area but botched Construction-Zone-Avoidance 101.

A passenger reported their robotaxi “blasted through cones” on May 19 and, when chased by police, actually sped up when it sensed flashing lights in pursuit. 

Is inculcating their cars with human boys-in-blue evasion skills the best Waymo can do?

With regards to the flooding incidents, it’s widely known that their assessment ability for water depth is degraded by the water’s surface unreliably reflecting the vehicles’ LiDAR pulses so they can’t “see” the road below. Depth assessments further deteriorate with movement from falling rain and water flow.

And the event in San Antonio made it clear the problem is not just in recognition. 

A Waymo can detect water, but its software cannot consistently bifurcate responses between slowing for a sheen of a shallow puddle from the hard stop that, for a human would be mandatory in confronting flowing water to determine the ‘depth’ of the problem.

Because they are not human, these autos lack the ability to comprehend when they are in trouble and do not request help, compounding problems and delaying resolution. 

Philip Koopman, a specialist in autonomous vehicles, points out that when “in a novel situation, it’s prone to overconfidence and spectacularly stupid failure.”

And it’s their inconsistency in responding to what humans accept as normal that is raising red flags for consumer confidence in the technology. 

Trapped by another glitch in May, multiple empty Waymo cars in an Atlanta suburb were recorded looping endlessly around cul-de-sacs early in the morning generating fears for the safety of neighborhood kids. 

On July 4, more than 100,000 people packed the San Francisco waterfront for a foggy fireworks display above the Golden Gate Bridge. Spectacular.

Not so spectacular was what happened when they tried to return home.

Waymo’s driverless cars blocked intersections and choked traffic for more than three hours. Several Waymos’ batteries died in the gridlock and the dead cars had to be towed. At least two drove over exploding fireworks with one catching fire.

Notoriously subject to computer chip-generated stall-outs, although usually more quickly resolved, Waymo failures clearly can trigger massive traffic congestion. 

An earlier San Francisco headline had blasted the nearly 1,600 Waymos stalled out during a December power outage blocking intersections and exasperating mortal commuters.

Has any agency delved further into the domino effect of angry drivers and road rage, late arrival to appointments snarling other lives, people lashing out from a last triggering event?

Before dollar signs in the eyes of investors further accelerate the roll-out of these demonstrably dangerous vehicles, isn’t it now the time to:

(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)