Fully autonomous vehicles continue to struggle with road cones - a new curio occurred with a convoy of seven Waymo driverless vehicles that temporarily blocked traffic on the exit ramp from the San Francisco freeway.
The incident, which occurred late in the evening on April 16 (around 9:30 pm), was brought to the attention by TechCrunch. This is not the first time Waymo's driverless vehicles have caused problems on the roads, but it is the first documented (on video) incident that occurred on a high-speed highway (on the exit ramp of Potrero Avenue, 101). On the way back to the depot, the first robotaxi in the column encountered a road closure with cones, and then everything went haywire. The first Waymo driverless vehicle, hitting the barrier, veered off the lane blocked by cones, and behind it, six other Waymo robotaxis veered off, completely paralyzing traffic on the stretch. In the video from the scene of the incident, you can see how drivers of other vehicles, unable to withstand the misfortune, got out to remove the cones and clear the way for the confused Waymo robotaxis.
A Waymo representative explained to TechCrunch that there was no other way out except to enter the freeway, noting that the company immediately sent a special rapid response team to forcibly clear the way, and the entire operation to evacuate the driverless vehicles lasted no more than 30 minutes.
A month ago, the California regulator allowed Waymo to operate a robotaxi service on San Francisco highways without a driver, but the team is not in a rush and is still cautiously testing the technology with an insurance driver in the front seat. Waymo said they are gradually transitioning to operating the robotaxi service on highways in normal mode without an insurance driver - first in Arizona, then in California.
It remains to be remembered Cruise - General Motors' (GM) division for the production of autonomous vehicles fell out of favor with regulators after numerous incidents involving the company's driverless vehicles blocking fire trucks and ambulances, including a recent incident of running over pedestrians. Earlier, city authorities and local residents repeatedly complained about the inability to quickly clear traffic jams with robotaxis or issue fines for traffic violations - in San Francisco, for example, law enforcement cannot fine driverless vehicles without drivers. At the same time, sometimes the driverless vehicles themselves become victims of vandalism by people - not so long ago in the same San Francisco, a group of unknown individuals attacked, smashed, and set fire to one of the brand-new electric Jaguar Waymo vehicles.
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