A month ago, a video circulated on social media of Waymo’s robotaxi getting stuck in a roundabout — an incident in which there were no passengers in the vehicle, according to Waymo. Apparently, it’s not just a one-time thing. At the same time, in another Waymo robotaxi heading to the Phoenix airport, Mike Johns, founder and CEO of AI consultancy Digital Mind State, also found himself circling the parking lot, unable to stop the car or get out. The videos were posted within days of each other. Waymo hasn’t confirmed whether the incidents happened at the same time or if they’re the same, but it says it’s updating its software to fix the problem. Johns was stuck in Waymo through the loop for “under seven minutes,” but said it “felt like forever,” mainly because he was afraid he would miss his flight and asked if the car had been hacked. This is the second time in Waymo’s robotaxi. A Waymo spokesperson confirmed the incident. “This event occurred in early December and has now been addressed with a regularly scheduled software update. The vehicle completed the ride and was not charged. A Waymo customer support specialist called the car without Johns’ request, TechCrunch said. The agent said he received word that his car “might have had some route issues,” according to a video of the incident that Johns shared. To resolve the issue, a specialist asked Johns to open the Waymo app and “tap ‘My Trip’ in the lower left corner.” [the] app,” to which Johns responded, “Can’t you do that? You should be able to handle it, take the car, you don’t need my phone. It’s a fair question to ask, since the takeover is supposed to be a remote assistant. “I had no choice but to control the car,” he admitted. Waymo told TechCrunch that its rider support agent is different from its fleet response team, which its autonomous driving software (known as “Waymo Driver”) taps for help when it encounters unfamiliar situations on the road. Rider support agents, as Johns said, can respond to the rider’s reach — the rider can communicate through the Waymo app and the phone button on the vehicle. They can also “initiate contact if Waymo’s vehicle diagnostics indicate the need.” But they do not interact directly with the vehicle’s driving software. Eventually, Johns said, following the support agent’s instructions in the app, the robotaxi returned. Johns said Waymo offered compensation for the ride and directed him to the website to file a complaint. The company did not immediately contact him after the incident, but did so this week after the video was picked up by a major news outlet. “The biggest thing is that in the digital age we live in, we’re disconnected from the human factor,” Johns told TechCrunch. “I’m all for AI. I’m at the forefront of AI, automation, robotics, but there’s still the human factor. Missy Cummings, professor of autonomy and robotics at George Mason University and former senior safety adviser for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said that this incident, however small, points to a larger problem that AV companies have to deal with. it can be hidden anywhere in the car which is difficult to achieve. “And I will tell you that the security measure is very important because what happens if the car is… has been hacked and there are passengers inside the vehicle? You definitely need the ability to stop everything in the car to get out. Waymo told TechCrunch that, in fact, “Waymo vehicles have pull-out buttons that are available to riders at any time,” located in the app and on the passenger’s screen, but Johns said support agents didn’t tell him about it, and he didn’t see it. Cummings also noted that asking riders to be active participants in the fix by using the app is “error-prone” due to connectivity issues and the app not being user-friendly. “I’m just shocked that they’re trying to get him on the phone to come to a resolution when this is clearly an urgent situation that needs to be addressed immediately,” Cummings said. “He should say, ‘Look, pull the left corner of the carpet on the floor and you’ll see a red button. Press that button.'”
