Waymo’s self-driving taxis are already cruising the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin. However, since the tests began, several accidents or slowdowns have occurred. Taxis, for example, collided with the fire truck, hit a cyclist, killed a dog.
Mike Johns, a tech entrepreneur, was traveling to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport when his self-driving taxi began to rotate. “At first I thought it was a joke,” he told the Guardian, “I have a lot of smart colleagues who work in the tech sector… I thought maybe he was a friend of mine. Only later, when I saw that he wasn’t stopping, did I realize that the car had a problem“. Once the car entered the airport car park, instead of stopping, it started to rotate, “I had my seat belt fastened and I couldn’t get out of the carit was surreal.”
Johns was stuck inside the vehicle for several minutes then the robotaxi stopped, “it spun around eight times while I was on the phone with the Waymo assistant to ask for help”, said the entrepreneur, “I risked missing the flight, I only managed to catch it because fortunately it was late”.
The Case of Mike Johns
Johns called customer service to figure out how to block the cab, filmed the entire conversation, and posted the video on LinkedIn. In the clip, Johns asks on the phone: “Has the taxi been hacked? What’s going on?” Then he adds: “I feel like I’m in a movie. Is someone playing a joke on me? I have a flight to catch!” The Waymo representative advised Johns to open his app to select the car control option. As the company spokesperson explained, the car was stopped after a few minutes.”It was a frustrating experience, I was stunned.”
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“As a futurist, I think this is the direction we’re going, so we might as well get there first,” Johns said. “We just have some problems that need fixing.” Waymo told the Guardian that the “looping event” was resolved thanks to a software update scheduled regularly. Johns was not charged for the trip.
The problems with self-driving taxis
The company’s robotaxis are already traveling on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austinaccording to Waymo, “they already have 4 million rides completely autonomous last year”. Since the tests began, however, several accidents or slowdowns have occurred. Taxis, for example, have collided with the fire truckthey hit a cyclist, killed a dog. Lyanne Melendezan ABC News reporter, tried to book a ride in a self-driving taxi last year. It didn’t go very well. When the green light went off the car she was never able to leave againNot only that, the taxi also always stopped in the wrong place, despite having entered the address more than once.
Many are asking to block self-driving cars, they are a problem for workers who drive taxis, a danger for road safety and also for passenger privacy. Already last year, San Francisco officials and residents opposed issuing taxi licenses to Waymo vehicles. They had immobilized them with orange cones as a sign of protest.
