Autonomous taxis are safer than manned ones because the computer behind the wheel has permanent 360-degree vision, is never looking at its cellphone, fiddling with the radio or tempted to take risks that might put its passengers in danger, or so we’re told. But yet another robotaxi log-jam on San Fransico’s streets reminds us that such a black and white focus on safety can sometimes by, quite literally, paralyzing.
We’ve written multiple stories about Cruise’s autonomous taxis blocking roads after getting confused, but this time the culprit is Waymo, a technology company owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, whose fleet of autonomous Jaguar I-Pace EVs operates in San Francisco and Phoenix, Arizona, and is coming to Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, soon.
The incident happened at 18.00 PST on Tuesday when a pack of five Waymo EVs encountered dense fog and calculated that it was too dangerous to proceed. Four of the Jags stopped on the right lane of San Aleso Avenue, and one parked itself in the middle of road to wait for the fog to clear, blocking the route for human drivers behind who didn’t have the benefit of Lidar, but were happy to proceed using their low-tech eyes to work out which way to go.
Related: Cruise Does Not Expect Its Vehicles To Run Into The Back Of A City Bus Again
Fortunately the fog was cleared in around six minutes and as soon as it lifted the cabs resumed their journeys. But following the incident Waymo acknowledged that the cars could have handled the situation better.
“We have software updates planned to improve our fog and parking performance to address such situations in the future,” the company told Reuters in a statement.
Rival robotaxi operator, Cruise, a division of General Motors, was forced to recall all 300 of its autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EVs earlier this month after one of its cars rear-ended a San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority articulated bus as it was leaving a stop. The Bolt had no passengers at the time of the crash and there were no reported injuries to anyone travelling on the bus.
The jam, which occurred shortly before 6 a.m., was the latest traffic disruption by robotaxis that are now ubiquitous in city streets, baffling motorists who flashed headlights and gingerly squeezed around the vehicles.https://t.co/EI2ctRWEqR
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) April 11, 2023