Fully self-driving cars continue to fight traffic cones — a new curiosity occurred with a motorcade of seven Waymo drones that temporarily blocked traffic on the San Francisco highway exit.
The incident, which occurred late in the evening on April 16 (around 21:30), was reported by TechCrunch. This is not the first time that Waymo’s drones have caused problems on the roads, but it is the first documented incident that occurred on a highway (at the Potrero Avenue exit, 101). On the way back to the depot, the first robotaxi in the convoy encountered a road block with cones, and then everything was a blur. The first Waymo drone, bumping into the barrier, drove out of the lane blocked by the cones, followed by six other Waymo robocars, and traffic was completely paralyzed. On video from the scene you can see how drivers of other authors, unable to bear the misfortune, come out to remove the cones and clear the way for the confused Waymo robotics.
A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch that there was no other way but to enter the highway, noting that the company immediately sent a special rapid response team to forcefully clear the way and that the entire drone evacuation operation lasted no more than 30 minutes.
A month ago, the California regulator allowed Waymo to operate a robotaxi service on San Francisco’s highways without a driver, but the team is in no hurry and is still testing the technology cautiously with a driver-insurer in the front seat. Waymo said that they are gradually moving to the operation of the robotaxi service on highways in the normal mode without a driver-insured — first Arizona, then California.
It remains to recall Cruise — General Motors (GM) self-driving car division fell out of favor with regulators after numerous incidents with the participation of the company’s drones through blocking firefighters and ambulances, including the recent episode of hitting pedestrians. Previously, city authorities and local residents have repeatedly complained about the inability to quickly clear a traffic jam with a robotaxi or issue a fine for a traffic violation — in San Francisco, for example, law enforcement officers cannot fine drones without drivers. At the same time, sometimes drones themselves become victims of human vandals — not long ago in San Francisco, a group of unknown attacked, smashed and set fire to one of Waymo’s brand new electric Jaguars.