Seemingly fearing for the worst, a passenger was seen hastily exiting a driverless Waymo car after it started moving on light rail tracks.
Per 12News, the incident happened in south Phoenix on Wednesday, January 7, and a bystander videoed the driverless car’s movements.
In the video, the Waymo car is seen stationary on the light rail tracks as a light rail car is also spotted coming from behind. A passenger is then seen hastily exiting the vehicle. The vehicle is later seen moving on the light rail tracks before it comes to a stop as a light rail car is seen moving in the opposite direction. The autonomous car is then seen reversing on the light rail tracks before the video cuts.
Phoenix police said that officers ultimately responded to the scene of the incident after receiving a call. But the Waymo car was no longer around when the officers arrived. Police also said that there was no report regarding interference with light rail service.
Waymo was yet to respond to the incident at the time of this report. Waymo’s driverless cars have reportedy grown in number in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Andrew Maynard, a professor who teaches advanced technology at the University of Arizona, told 12News that though incidents of such nature hardly occur, they occasionally take place.
“Humans are really good at seeing a brand new situation and trying to work out how to get around it. Waymos don’t have that capability,” Maynard said. “They are smarter than humans when they know the road, and they get confused when something completely blindsides them.”
There is construction at the place where the incident occurred. The light rail station was also installed last year, and Maynard said that could have been a contributing factor.
“The cars they very intentionally follow mapped-out roads,” Maynard said. “They’re good if there’s, say, road works there, but not so good if there’s been a structural change to the road setup.”
Maynard also said that Waymo staff would address a case of such nature when he was asked how the self-driving car ultimately moved away from the light rail tracks.
“Waymo will react very fast if they see an issue like this. They will look at the software, work out where the bugs are, where they need to update it, and they will push an update out very fast indeed,” Maynard said.
