This article is from WeChat official account:Big Data Digest (ID: BigDataDigest) , Author: Caleb, original title: “In the test area of ​​the construction site, Waymo self-driving cars “defect online”! Automatically parked 4 times and was greeted by passers-by”, the title picture comes from: Wikipedia

In October last year, Waymo driverless cars were officially opened to the public.

Out of curiosity about related technologies, many netizens tried this 100% driverless taxi at the first time.

According to a video posted by a YouTube blogger named JJ Ricks, Waymo driverless rental can not only accurately locate the pick-up point, but it can also travel without obstacles on crowded streets, even as old The driver “running the yellow light” like this.

It can be said that Waymo has found the correct way to open the driverless.

But recently, JJ Ricks released another video, this time Waymo’s performance can be said to be a bit “overturned”.

The area where Waymo is driving this time is near a construction site. In the video, when the driverless car tries to turn right into a multi-lane road, the system detects that the rightmost road is under construction and has been banned. Waymo won’t move?

When the background staff called to ask for details and said that the relevant driver was heading there, Waymo suddenly started, and within a few seconds of turning into the right road, it stopped moving again.

This time it also blocked traffic and even attracted “greetings” from road workers.

What caused Waymo to become so “rebellious”, how many times has it tried to escape the driver’s positioning and control?

1. When the unmanned vehicle “Big Brother” Waymo encounters an emergency on the road

This time, Digest Bacteria will not be sold, and we will start directly from the “rollover” that everyone is most interested in.

It can be seen that Waymo is now parked at a T-shaped intersection. According to the rear panel display, the expected route of the car is still to turn right into the lane, but at this time the rightmost lane has been blocked.

It can be seen that a car came and stopped behind Waymo, and Ricks also prompted the driver to turn around from behind.

At this time, the roadside assistance team (roadside assistance team) contacted Ricks through the communication device in the car. The staff said that the relevant driver will come as soon as possible and will send him to the destination through manual driving.

While the staff and Ricks were still engaged in matching matters, WAymo started suddenly, and after the car turned right into the lane, it stopped in the middle of the road.

Ricks said, “Now it is blocking half of the road.”

As we can see more intuitively from the street rendering on the bottom right, this is indeed quite dangerous.

At this time, there was also an episode. On the rear flat screen, the system gave a prompt “Estimated arrival time is less than 1 minute”. But according to the information given by the Ricks mobile phone, there is still a 12-minute drive from the destination.

One wave has not settled and one wave has risen again. As the staff tried to solve the problem, the rescue driver’s vehicle “screamed” from the side of Ricks.

However, according to the staff, when the vehicle stopped for the first time,The system assigns a driver to it, but then the car starts and the related tasks are cancelled. However, in the Waymo self-driving car driving area, 2-3 patrol cars for inspection are randomly assigned, in case of emergency.

Suddenly again, Waymo started up again, but this time the vehicle did not move forward, but backed slightly. At this moment, the whole street was basically blocked.

A more dramatic moment happened, and you can see not far away, a road worker driving a large truck began to recover the roadblock. In other words, the obstacles that prevented the system from turning right before, but are now difficult to move forward, have now been removed.

However, the Waymo car still has no signs of moving forward, which has attracted road workers to ask if there has been a safety accident.

A few minutes later, naturally, when the system detects that there are no obstacles ahead, the car starts again.

However, then at a new intersection, the car stopped again, this time because it wanted to turn from the left lane into the middle lane, but it can be seen that the roadblock ahead has not been fully recovered.

However, the driver has rushed to the scene, manually operated the driverless car, and delivered Ricks safely to the destination.

For the various emergencies, Waymo officials also gave a reply, saying that this trip was indeed “unsatisfactory”.

“After the expansion of the test ride area, the Waymo driver first discovered the abnormal situation and asked the remote staff to pay attention to provide more information. During the interaction, the team response team provided wrong guidance, which gave Waymo The driver’s restoration of the original route brings challenges.”

Waymo also said: “The team evaluated this and improved the operational process.”

It seems that there are still many details and emergency response measures that need to be perfected before we realize the future where everyone can drive driverless cars.

Second, in the face of emergencies, the mistakes of Waymo’s automatic driving technology are fully exposed

According to Noah Goodall, a scientist who studies vehicle communications and automation at the University of Virginia, this shows a series of errors in Waymo’s autonomous driving technology.

During the 4 automatic stops throughout the journey, Goodall said, “The first time is understandable, the second time is very strange, the third time I was dumbfounded, and the fourth time I gave up completely. .”

First, the Waymo driverless car stopped at a T-shaped intersection with a stop sign. In this regard, Waymo said that the guidance of employees trying to modify the car’s trajectory during the process was “inappropriate.” Waymo employs remote workers who can provide information and guidance to unmanned vehicles, but they cannot perform manual control.

Then, after turning, the driverless car stopped on the road, blocking part of a lane. As we all know, construction sites are a challenge for driverless cars because they rely on detailed environmental maps for safe navigation. When the car’s environment changes, for example, when the lane is closed, it may be difficult for the car to maintain its best condition.

After stopping for a few minutes, the car reversed slightly, further blocking the entire lane, which caused other vehicles to cross the double yellow line to bypass the Waymo car.

Bryant Walker Smith, who studies autonomous vehicles at the University of South Carolina, said he was surprised that no one gave Waymo an order to stop during the whole process, so that it stays where it is, so that the driver can come. take over.

“The in-vehicle system, the remote monitoring capabilities of the online operator, and ground assistance are not well coordinated.”

This trip Ricks arrived 20 minutes later than expected. He said, “If your time is tight, try not to choose Waymo.”

Nevertheless, Ricks also said that he has taken Waymo 146 times. He doesn’t think the public needs to worry about the safety of Waymo driverless cars. He will continue to ride Waymo cars in the future. .

“I have seen a lot of impressive technologies. It seems insincere to deny them completely because of an incident.”

Finally, some people may want to watch the complete process. Digest Bacteria also puts the video here, as a friendly reminder, the official “rollover” accident will not begin until 12 minutes later.


Related reports:

https://gizmodo.com/one-of-waymos-autonomous-taxis-got-stumped-by-traffic-c-1846900332

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/17/tech/waymo-arizona-confused/index.html

This article is from WeChat official account:Big Data Digest (ID: BigDataDigest) , by Caleb