Besides convenience, one of the main benefits of self-driving cars is supposed to be safety.
Yet in a bizarre move, Waymo — whose self-driving cabs had been enjoying extraordinary safety metrics — has just taken steps to make its robotaxis more human-like, eroding the safety narrative that’s been central to the autonomous vehicle narrative.
Recent reporting by The Wall Street Journal observed a startling change in Waymos’ road etiquette, a new aggressive streak that would make a BMW driver blush. These include illegal U-turns, aggressive lane switching, rolling through cross walks, and running red lights.
This is the stupid shit I get instead of actual public transport and infrastructure. What a dumb timeline.
But that would only benefit the majority of the populace instead of making a few disgustingly wealthy men even wealthier.
Big Insurance is playing both sides
In a “Our cars are faster” move?
These include illegal U-turns, aggressive lane switching, rolling through cross walks, and running red lights.
They like fines?
Oh, they do not have to pay ‘fines’
However, if the car is driverless, there is likely no punishment.
According to the Atlanta Police Standard Operating Procedure, they are told not to issue citations to driverless vehicles.
The standards read in part:
“The court system is currently unable to process traffic citations for AVs with no human operator. If the vehicle violates a traffic law, where a citation would be warranted, the officer must write a report providing the details surrounding the incident and the law that was violated.”
After this incident a Waymo self-drove around a stopped school bus, there were no charges, but this article says that will change in 2026
I guess they want to pay them all in one lump sum once a year, cash in a black briefcase…
If this was an Onion article, the headline would have been “Waymo cars will now go through each hit pedestrian multiple times”.
Yikes. I was just in SF for work. One of the things I liked best about wayno as a pedestrian is that you could confidently step out into the road in front of them and they would always slam their breaks so hard it never hit you, and the occupants would be all pissed about it
Risking your life to inconvenience other people is a weird form of fun I must say.
I’ve ridden in Waymos in SF a few times and I liked the fact that they drive like a granny. If they’re changing programming I won’t want to ride.
Sounds like a new game to play instead of knock-door-run for the kids. Hilarity ensues.
They will never make it into Europe this way.
Good thing.Been waiting for this day since I was 14 😏
@tonytins@pawb.social a bit sensational way to frame this. There’s no evidence that the cited examples in the original article are a result of the changes or that they’re necessarily making changes that would make the Waymo Driver less safe.
There’s that potential and the mentioned real problems are worth some attention regardless but some of these changes sound like they’re motivated by just addressing situations where Waymo is unable to make the decisions any safe driver would because there are conflicting rules to follow for example…
Just run over that pupil around the corner
This is the weirdest way to say this. What a weird bot.
Looking at their comment history, I don’t think this is a bot. Just looks like someone with a tenuous grasp on English.
