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Waymo told the Chronicle in a statement that the robotaxi “detected that there may be a risk of a person within that crowd who had fallen down, and decided to c

Waymo told the Chronicle in a statement that the robotaxi “detected that there may be a risk of a person within that crowd who had fallen down, and decided to carefully initiate a passing maneuver when the opposing lane was clear to move around what could be an obstacle and a safety concern.” “After starting that maneuver, out of an abundance of caution around these vulnerable road users, and to avoid getting too close or cutting them off, the Waymo remained in the oncoming lane for longer than necessary before returning to its original lane of travel,” the company said. -- https://archive.ph/24IDK https://archive.ph/24IDK

timeon 2y ago
Waymo car here like some drivers never consider option to slow down. They just have to overtake at all costs.
fabian2k 2y ago
That statement is PR bullshit, I expected better from Waymo. Nobody fell, so it misidentified the situation. And there was nothing careful about the overtake maneuver here, there was no safe place to end the maneuver in sight. These kinds of mistakes will very likely happen with self-driving cars, the important part is to address them and improve the cars. I don't expect the cars to be flawless from the start (I do expect some fundamental safety mechanisms to work reliably from the start like the automatic braking before obstacles). Downplaying the issue here is a bad look for Waymo.
- gnfargbl 2y ago
  I'm not sure if it's entirely bullshit, but certainly the phrase "remained in the oncoming lane for longer than necessary" is doing some heavy lifting, feels like some key information has been omitted.
Timshel 2y ago
I love the : > before returning to its original lane of travel When it was only able to do so when someone started to block its path to force it to stop ...
stefan_ 2y ago
It is a really really really bad sign that these companies feel the obsessive need to lie and distort around what are safety-critical incidents. Where is the safety culture? If this is how it's going to be, why on earth should we trust them to deploy them on public streets?

timeon 2y ago

Waymo car here like some drivers never consider option to slow down. They just have to overtake at all costs.

fabian2k 2y ago

That statement is PR bullshit, I expected better from Waymo. Nobody fell, so it misidentified the situation. And there was nothing careful about the overtake maneuver here, there was no safe place to end the maneuver in sight. These kinds of mistakes will very likely happen with self-driving cars, the important part is to address them and improve the cars. I don't expect the cars to be flawless from the start (I do expect some fundamental safety mechanisms to work reliably from the start like the automatic braking before obstacles). Downplaying the issue here is a bad look for Waymo.

gnfargbl 2y ago
I'm not sure if it's entirely bullshit, but certainly the phrase "remained in the oncoming lane for longer than necessary" is doing some heavy lifting, feels like some key information has been omitted.

Timshel 2y ago

I love the : > before returning to its original lane of travel When it was only able to do so when someone started to block its path to force it to stop ...

stefan_ 2y ago

It is a really really really bad sign that these companies feel the obsessive need to lie and distort around what are safety-critical incidents. Where is the safety culture? If this is how it's going to be, why on earth should we trust them to deploy them on public streets?