Repeatedly passed school buses: Update to teach Waymo taxis traffic rules
In the USA, driving past stopped school buses is prohibited. It has been claimed that Waymo's robotaxis don't obey the rules. Now an update should help.
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After Waymo's autonomous vehicles passed school buses in several instances, which is prohibited while children are boarding or disembarking, a software update is intended to prevent this in the future. The subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet announced this to the US news site NPR, while also pointing out that it is a voluntary update. According to Waymo, a part of the software that contributed to the incidents has been identified; the update is to be distributed this week. The company also noted that no one was harmed due to the problem.
Numerous cases reported
A few days before the admission, the Austin school district in Texas reported 19 cases to the company in which robotaxis had unlawfully passed school buses. This is evident from an email published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This has also been observed elsewhere. When the world-famous yellow school buses in the USA stop to allow students to board or disembark, they activate a flashing light and extend a clearly visible stop sign. They must not be overtaken or passed in the opposite direction. Because Waymo vehicles did not do this, the school district demanded that operations be completely suspended before school starts and in the afternoon. The NHTSA has initiated an investigation.
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Waymo's autonomous taxis are the only ones in the USA allowed to transport passengers without a safety driver at the wheel. They are now doing so in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta. Recently, there have been reports that the driving behavior of the cars has changed. In some cases, they no longer stop completely at stop signs and even take precedence from others. While they were previously considered overly cautious, the driving experience is now slowly approaching that of reckless taxi drivers. Waymo has already admitted that software updates are responsible for this. Only when the robotaxis are driving in a "confident and assertive" manner will they not be overlooked in San Francisco traffic.
(mho)