World Courant
Final 12 months, two Waymo robotaxis in Phoenix “made contact” with the identical pickup truck that was within the midst of being towed, which prompted the Alphabet subsidiary to concern a recall on its automobiles’ software program. A “recall” on this case meant rolling out a software program replace after investigating the problem and figuring out its root trigger.
In a weblog submit, Waymo has revealed that on December 11, 2023, one in every of its robotaxis collided with a backwards-facing pickup truck being towed forward of it. The corporate says the truck was being towed improperly and was angled throughout a middle flip lane and a site visitors lane. Apparently, the tow truck did not pull over after the incident, and one other Waymo automobile got here into contact with the pickup truck a couple of minutes later. Waymo didn’t elaborate on what it meant by saying that its robotaxis “made contact” with the pickup truck, nevertheless it did say that the incidents resulted in no accidents and solely minor automobile harm. The self-driving automobiles concerned within the collisions weren’t carrying any passengers.
After an investigation, Waymo discovered that its software program had incorrectly predicted the long run actions of the pickup truck as a result of “persistent orientation mismatch” between the towed automobile and the one towing it. The corporate developed and validated a repair for its software program to stop comparable incidents sooner or later and began deploying the replace to its fleet on December 20.
Waymo’s rival firm Cruise was concerned in a extra critical incident final 12 months, wherein one in every of its robots by accident dragged somebody hit by one other automobile a couple of dozen ft down a San Francisco avenue. California then suspended its license to function within the state, and Cruise finally paused all robotaxi operations, even those with a human driver behind the wheel, as a part of a security evaluation. In the meantime, it is enterprise as traditional for Waymo, which lately introduced that it’ll begin testing driverless automobiles on highways and freeways in and round Phoenix.
