Apr 1, 2021 08:17 PM
The good people of Phoenix are egging the self-driving Google cars
https://jalopnik.com/the-good-people-of-...1846594207
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Angry residents, abrupt stops: Waymo vehicles are still causing problems in Arizona
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/way...m-11541896
EXCERPTS: A driverless Waymo vehicle caused a crash in October by stopping unexpectedly in the middle of the road, displaying a technical malfunction the Google-related company claims is rare. In another 2020 incident, a police officer claimed a sudden stop by a Waymo vehicle caused a rear-end collision, but the officer was cited.
The incidents are detailed in newly released police reports obtained by Phoenix New Times that shed fresh light on the function and operations of the driverless vehicles, which are often cloaked in secrecy. The reports from Chandler and Tempe, released last week under state public records law, detail all Waymo-related cases since January 2020.
Earlier this month, the company bragged about how well its vehicles would perform if they replaced human drivers, and how many lives they could have saved in Chandler. Yet the company hasn't been totally transparent with metro Phoenix residents, refusing to turn over data showing how many times the vehicles' autonomous function has failed while driving around Chandler, Tempe, and other Valley areas. The latest police reports help to explain why the company has struggled in its deployment of a fully driverless fleet. Although its vehicles can operate in driverless mode, nearly all still have backup drivers behind the wheel when they're on the road.
[...] How Safe Are They? While Waymo's achievements in autonomous vehicle technology have been praised worldwide, fully driverless vehicles remain rare on the roads, even in Chandler, where local Waymo operations are based. ... In early March of this year, Waymo released results of a simulation showing that if its vehicles could replace the vehicles involved in 72 fatal collisions in Chandler from 2008 to 2018, almost no one would have died.
[...] Waymo used the same software for its modeling that has guided its vehicles' performance over millions of real and simulated driving miles, though, and didn't calculate what would happen in the collisions if the driverless vehicle didn't perform as expected. As an associated paper on the simulations explains, the study of simulations doesn't, by itself, actually show how safe Waymo's driverless vehicles are "across all possible conflict scenarios."
While the study of real-world collisions is useful, "this alone" doesn't show all the ways a driverless vehicle "may induce a collision when deployed."
[...] Potential 'hazard'. The 15 months' worth of reports from Tempe and Chandler include several other notable safety-related incidents:
* A bicyclist reported that a Waymo vehicle with no backup driver seemed to prepare for a turn on a residential street, but wasn't slowing down, causing the bicyclist to stop. The vehicle "appeared not to detect him as it accelerated through the northbound turn." The man reported "he would have been struck had he not stopped." An officer noted that Waymo would be contacted about the incident, but no investigation occurred.
* In Tempe, a caller reported that a Waymo vehicle and another vehicle were "parked in the middle of [the] street" and "causing a major traffic hazard." The cars apparently soon moved, and police had nothing further on the incident.
* Waymo vehicles were involved in four other collisions, including two hit-and-runs. No injuries were reported...
Waymo vehicles and the people riding in them as backup drivers or passengers may face other problems besides being in a collision:
* One man in Chandler was found passed out in a Waymo vehicle from suspected narcotics use.
* Another man believed to be inebriated got into a Waymo vehicle that a registered user had just exited, and closed all doors...
The Chandler reports also detail vandalism or implied threats to the vehicles and their backup drivers, a phenomenon first reported in late 2018 by the Arizona Republic:
* A police officer saw a car reverse rapidly toward a Waymo vehicle, barely avoiding a collision. The driver was arrested for driving on a revoked license.
* Someone threw an ice-cream cone into the open window of a Waymo vehicle.
* A man in a black car threw eggs at multiple Waymo vehicles. The Waymo backup drivers didn't want to be contacted by police.
* A Waymo backup driver switched to manual mode after seeing traffic slowing and maneuvering around what turned out to be a dead dog in a lane. As the backup driver passed the dog, "she heard someone yelling and swearing at her to slow down which she had already done." A man standing in the bicycle lane, who she believed might have been the dog's owner, lashed out at the vehicle, punching and breaking the mirror. The backup driver told an officer she'd have to ask Waymo if she should press charges. No further investigation took place.
* After a Waymo vehicle turned left in front of two motorcycles, the two motorcyclists — a man on a Harley Davidson and a woman with long dark hair dressed in an "orange-colored Tigger costume or pajama set" riding a sportbike — blocked a second Waymo vehicle in a parking lot temporarily. The man got off his Harley and began yelling at the second vehicle's backup driver, who was able to soon escape. Waymo didn't provide the police with any video, although the vehicles are outfitted with several exterior cameras. No further investigation took place.
Waymo's Take. According to Waymo, its vehicles are designed to slow down and stop when they're having a technical problem. The company insisted that technical failures that result in a disengagement, or manual takeover, are rare. While the company won't release its local disengagement data, it reported to California in 2020 that it had 21 disengagements over 629,000 miles of autonomous driving in that state, for a rate of 3.3 per 100,000 miles.
Waymo also pointed out that fatal rear-end collisions are rare, and since technical failures are also rare, it's statistically unlikely that a vehicle would have been in a "failed state" for any of the decade's worth of Chandler crashes it modeled this month.
[...] As to the problems with vandals or drunks, Waymo promised that it has its riders covered. The company can help facilitate contact with authorities, and Rider Support allows riders to get assistance whenever they need it. "In short, we're learning every day and have policies and procedures in place to address the types of events you mention," Waymo said. (MORE - details)
https://jalopnik.com/the-good-people-of-...1846594207
- - - - - -
Angry residents, abrupt stops: Waymo vehicles are still causing problems in Arizona
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/way...m-11541896
EXCERPTS: A driverless Waymo vehicle caused a crash in October by stopping unexpectedly in the middle of the road, displaying a technical malfunction the Google-related company claims is rare. In another 2020 incident, a police officer claimed a sudden stop by a Waymo vehicle caused a rear-end collision, but the officer was cited.
The incidents are detailed in newly released police reports obtained by Phoenix New Times that shed fresh light on the function and operations of the driverless vehicles, which are often cloaked in secrecy. The reports from Chandler and Tempe, released last week under state public records law, detail all Waymo-related cases since January 2020.
Earlier this month, the company bragged about how well its vehicles would perform if they replaced human drivers, and how many lives they could have saved in Chandler. Yet the company hasn't been totally transparent with metro Phoenix residents, refusing to turn over data showing how many times the vehicles' autonomous function has failed while driving around Chandler, Tempe, and other Valley areas. The latest police reports help to explain why the company has struggled in its deployment of a fully driverless fleet. Although its vehicles can operate in driverless mode, nearly all still have backup drivers behind the wheel when they're on the road.
[...] How Safe Are They? While Waymo's achievements in autonomous vehicle technology have been praised worldwide, fully driverless vehicles remain rare on the roads, even in Chandler, where local Waymo operations are based. ... In early March of this year, Waymo released results of a simulation showing that if its vehicles could replace the vehicles involved in 72 fatal collisions in Chandler from 2008 to 2018, almost no one would have died.
[...] Waymo used the same software for its modeling that has guided its vehicles' performance over millions of real and simulated driving miles, though, and didn't calculate what would happen in the collisions if the driverless vehicle didn't perform as expected. As an associated paper on the simulations explains, the study of simulations doesn't, by itself, actually show how safe Waymo's driverless vehicles are "across all possible conflict scenarios."
While the study of real-world collisions is useful, "this alone" doesn't show all the ways a driverless vehicle "may induce a collision when deployed."
[...] Potential 'hazard'. The 15 months' worth of reports from Tempe and Chandler include several other notable safety-related incidents:
* A bicyclist reported that a Waymo vehicle with no backup driver seemed to prepare for a turn on a residential street, but wasn't slowing down, causing the bicyclist to stop. The vehicle "appeared not to detect him as it accelerated through the northbound turn." The man reported "he would have been struck had he not stopped." An officer noted that Waymo would be contacted about the incident, but no investigation occurred.
* In Tempe, a caller reported that a Waymo vehicle and another vehicle were "parked in the middle of [the] street" and "causing a major traffic hazard." The cars apparently soon moved, and police had nothing further on the incident.
* Waymo vehicles were involved in four other collisions, including two hit-and-runs. No injuries were reported...
Waymo vehicles and the people riding in them as backup drivers or passengers may face other problems besides being in a collision:
* One man in Chandler was found passed out in a Waymo vehicle from suspected narcotics use.
* Another man believed to be inebriated got into a Waymo vehicle that a registered user had just exited, and closed all doors...
The Chandler reports also detail vandalism or implied threats to the vehicles and their backup drivers, a phenomenon first reported in late 2018 by the Arizona Republic:
* A police officer saw a car reverse rapidly toward a Waymo vehicle, barely avoiding a collision. The driver was arrested for driving on a revoked license.
* Someone threw an ice-cream cone into the open window of a Waymo vehicle.
* A man in a black car threw eggs at multiple Waymo vehicles. The Waymo backup drivers didn't want to be contacted by police.
* A Waymo backup driver switched to manual mode after seeing traffic slowing and maneuvering around what turned out to be a dead dog in a lane. As the backup driver passed the dog, "she heard someone yelling and swearing at her to slow down which she had already done." A man standing in the bicycle lane, who she believed might have been the dog's owner, lashed out at the vehicle, punching and breaking the mirror. The backup driver told an officer she'd have to ask Waymo if she should press charges. No further investigation took place.
* After a Waymo vehicle turned left in front of two motorcycles, the two motorcyclists — a man on a Harley Davidson and a woman with long dark hair dressed in an "orange-colored Tigger costume or pajama set" riding a sportbike — blocked a second Waymo vehicle in a parking lot temporarily. The man got off his Harley and began yelling at the second vehicle's backup driver, who was able to soon escape. Waymo didn't provide the police with any video, although the vehicles are outfitted with several exterior cameras. No further investigation took place.
Waymo's Take. According to Waymo, its vehicles are designed to slow down and stop when they're having a technical problem. The company insisted that technical failures that result in a disengagement, or manual takeover, are rare. While the company won't release its local disengagement data, it reported to California in 2020 that it had 21 disengagements over 629,000 miles of autonomous driving in that state, for a rate of 3.3 per 100,000 miles.
Waymo also pointed out that fatal rear-end collisions are rare, and since technical failures are also rare, it's statistically unlikely that a vehicle would have been in a "failed state" for any of the decade's worth of Chandler crashes it modeled this month.
[...] As to the problems with vandals or drunks, Waymo promised that it has its riders covered. The company can help facilitate contact with authorities, and Rider Support allows riders to get assistance whenever they need it. "In short, we're learning every day and have policies and procedures in place to address the types of events you mention," Waymo said. (MORE - details)