Video Een zelfrijdende auto van Waymo kwam meerdere keren vast te zitten, hield het verkeer met tussenpozen op en vertrok onverwachts toen er hulp kwam. Het eigenzinnige autonome voertuig werd uiteindelijk gevorderd door een ondersteunende bestuurder.
Joel Johnson heeft enkele tientallen video's opgenomen die zijn ritten in Waymo-robotaxis documenteren, die hij op zijn website en YouTube-kanaal plaatst.
Video 54 beschrijft hoe een rit vorige week in Chandler, Arizona, misging toen zijn Waymo-auto weigerde rechtsaf te slaan van West Linda Lane naar North Dobson Road, een vierbaansweg waar de rechterrijstrook van de twee zuidelijke rijstroken was geblokkeerd door het verkeer kegels.
"Oh, so, how are we going to turn right when the right lane is closed off?" Johnson can be gehoord 12 minuten en 25 seconden tegen zichzelf vertellend in de video van 35 minuten hieronder, terwijl vastzittende chauffeurs piepen.
Moments later, Waymo rider support calls. "It looks like your car has paused," the Waymo customer service rep informs Johnson. "We are going to be sending our Waymo Road Assistance."
Strak vastmaken
Johnson is advised to remain seated with his seat belt fastened in case the car starts moving again, which it does: about four minutes later, the car decides to turn into the unblocked lefthand southbound land, only to swerve back into the right hand lane between two traffic cones after passing the "Keep Left" sign that directs drivers not to be in that lane.
"Oh, I don't think it was supposed to do that," Johnson said to the Waymo operator, still on the line. "...Oh now, it's blocking the entire road."
Een paar minuten later keert de auto achteruit op de open linkerrijstrook.
"Okay, so we 're backing out," said Johnson. "Very interesting."
"So it backed out…," the operator said.
"And then now it's blocking the whole lane instead of half of it," Johnson replied.
Ongeveer tien minuten in de kerfuffle, te midden van verwarring over de werkelijke ETA van de beloofde pechhulp (de hervatting van de beweging annuleerde de eerste oproep voor pechhulp), naderde langzaam een bouwtruck op de geblokkeerde rechterrijstrook, in noordelijke richting tegen het verkeer in om de auto op te halen. verkeerskegels.
After passing the stalled robotaxi, the construction vehicle halts and the driver gets out to help redirect traffic. When the driver approaches, Johnson informs him that he can't move the Waymo and that Roadside Assistance is coming.
Even later begint de auto terug te keren naar de vrije linkerrijstrook, stopt plotseling wanneer hij wordt gepasseerd door een andere auto en rijdt weer verder voordat Pechhulp kan ingrijpen.
'Hurry up, it's gonna escape!'
Na ongeveer een minuut in zuidelijke richting te hebben gereden, komt de onverschrokken Waymo tot stilstand op de linkerbaan van North Dobson Road nadat hij meer verkeerskegels is tegengekomen.
Addressing the support operator, Johnson said of the planned route displayed on-screen in the car, "I don't know if you can see the planner, but it wants to go halfway between lanes, like right over the cones."
Uiteindelijk stopt Wegenwacht achter de gestopte Waymo. De auto dan besluit te vertrekken before Waymo's driver can take manual control, only to again get stuck amid the cones.
"You better hurry up, it's gonna escape," Johnson remarked.
"The car took off again?" the operator said.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes," said Johnson as the car's steering wheel turns on its own. "Uh well, a little bit, and then it ... this is, um. Now it's ... I don't even know what's going on anymore."
Finally, the Roadside Assistance driver gets into the car and takes over to complete the ride. Here's the full video:
In een verklaring gemaild naar Het register, Waymo vertelde het avontuur:
Makkelijke rijder
Johnson, in een telefonisch interview met Het register, nam het incident ter harte, met gedocumenteerd multiple rides where it's been necessary to disengage the Waymo driver software.
He said when he saw the traffic cones, "I figured it would get stuck." And he insisted he's mostly fine with it. He said he didn't feel unsafe and trusted Waymo's technology. However, he did acknowledge however that some rough spots remain.
"Waymo seems to have a bit of issues with the weather whenever it rains here in Chandler," he said.
Asked whether he believes Waymo's robotaxis should be operating on the road, he said, "I think it's ready for this area and that's why they launched here." The roads in Chandler, he said, are wide open, in a grid format, and allow for a lot of possible detours.
"In this situation, there was some internal miscommunication," he said, adding that he hopes the Alphabet-owned Google stablemate will improve its internal processes. "Overall, the Waymo Roadside Assistance and rider support is helpful."
El Reg heeft eerder gerapporteerd that Google's self-driving cars struggled with stop lights, sunsets, junctions, and the Arizona heat.
In a YouTube video commenting on Johnson's adventure, Mahmood Hikmet, head of research and development at self-driving bus biz Ohmio, merkte, "If the passenger inside the vehicle is put into a situation where they have to wave and signal to the vehicle behind them in order to go around them, that's not exactly ideal from a robotaxi perspective."
"If Waymo just allowed Joel to drive this vehicle to safety, a lot of this could have been avoided," Hikmet toegevoegd
Bron: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/05/17/waymo_robotaxi_malfunction/
