Waymo robotaxis at a depot. (Image source: Sophia Tung)
Driving out of a depot is apparently not one of Waymo’s robot taxis’ strengths. A YouTube channel documents the behavior when dozens of Taixis have to drive off autonomously. The artificial intelligence does not look particularly elegant. It almost looks as if the cars don’t know anything about each other.
Opinion poll
Take part in our 2024 service satisfaction survey: We want to hear your experiences!
Participate here
It is apparently a resident of a San Francisco Waymo depot who is currently offering a live stream of the events surrounding the robotaxis based there and occasionally publishes individual videos as a “best of” the artificial intelligence of the Waymo vehicles.
At the Waymo depot, the vehicles do not behave like people, but drive quite recklessly. They block each other’s path and if another vehicle comes too close, they honk.
The videos are quite interesting from an observation perspective on AI technology. A supposedly finished robotaxi system still shows clear weaknesses in its operational processes. Especially when many vehicles are requested at once, it quickly becomes very inefficient. The group dynamics then quickly lead to traffic jams, as the following video shows.
What is interesting about the videos is that the vehicles apparently do not know that they are interacting with another AI. The vehicles behave stubbornly and selfishly, wanting above all to leave the depot without taking other vehicles into consideration.
If a human driver finds himself in a crowd of Waymo vehicles in such a situation, he or she will quickly lose patience.
How little consideration is shown is also shown in a second video. Here, a small concert of honking is even held at night while one Waymo robot taxi reverses after the other. Each reversal triggers a honk from the AI behind it, which then reverses in an evasive manner and is honked at by the next AI in a taxi:
The nightly honking concerts were stopped after a Report from The Verge but has now been fixed via a software update.
In any case, it is interesting to see that Waymo has not yet taught its vehicles proper depot behavior. From a purely technical perspective, this is not particularly important for the operation, after all, the vehicles still get to and from the yard somehow. But it can be stressful for the population around a depot. During development, social aspects were either not taken into account, forgotten or simply ignored. An assessment of the consequences of technology in everyday life is perhaps completely lacking here.
If you want to watch the event live, you can Activate Sophia Tung’s live stream. There is also a link to a honk tracker in the stream description. The honking events are recorded and classified in a Google Spreadsheet.
Andreas Sebayang – Tech Writer – 604 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021
Traveling a lot and always with technology in my backpack. That’s what sets me apart and occasionally gives me the proverbial look outside the box. It all started as a Windows and Mac administrator in a small music company in 2000. Putting together computers, placing large business notebook orders or even configuring WLAN and LAN for events abroad were all part of it. In 2005, I also had a career at golem.de until 2021 and since 2017 I have been an editor for airliners.de. Topics: technology, airplanes and – yes – trains.
Share this article to support us. Every link helps!
