Waymo takes takes passenger on wild police chase | Latest Tech News
It misplaced its Way-mo.
A San Francisco passenger discovered themselves in an unintended car chase after their Waymo veered means off beam, attracting the eye of police vehicles.
San Francisco resident Elliot Slade and his fiancé had been taking one of the robotaxis along Highway 101 when they got here upon a construction zone, ABC News reported.
The driverless cab, which is a component of the automated transport arm of the tech firm Alphabet, tried to change lanes but to no avail. Despite the abundance of indicators, lights and cones, the Waymo went straight into the off-limits lane before taking off, per the passenger.
“In that moment it’s like, ‘oh this technology is not ready,’” said Slade. Elliot Slade
“It went through the cones and then sped up straight away,” lamented Slade, who said their mishap caught the attention of a patrol car, which started chasing the rogue robo-car to see what was amiss.
All the while, Slade said he was shouting, “Stop Waymo,” and questioning, “What the heck is going on?”
The automated car chase finally ended after the car departed the construction zone and took a freeway exit into a residential neighborhood.
Slade said he has reservations about taking a Waymo ever again. ABC7
Slade thanks his fortunate stars there wasn’t a collision.
“In that moment it’s like, ‘Oh this technology is not ready,’” said the relieved rider, who Ubered home that night. “If something else had gone wrong, someone in that road might have got hit. We might have crashed in the car.”
Slade said that their wild journey caught the eye of a patrol car. Elliot Slade
While he has taken a Waymo since the fiasco, he said he doesn’t need to use it again.
“There was a moment where even getting into it again was kind of freaky. A bit of PTSD- yeah,” said Slade.
Coincidentally, this is one of over a dozen comparable incidents in which these self-driving taxis by accident entered construction zones after failing to acknowledge the literal warning indicators.
To curb these disasters, the automated car giant recalled over 3,800 of the robotaxis, per a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The car company also restricted them from driving on the freeway while it outfitted the tech with better situational awareness and a directive to keep away from getting into construction zones.
“We identified an area of improvement regarding performance around freeway construction zones,” Waymo told The Post in a assertion.
“We voluntarily restricted freeway operations last month while making improvements, proactively notified state and federal regulators, and decided to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA.”
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