video En selvkjørende Waymo-bil ble sittende fast flere ganger, holdt opp trafikken med jevne mellomrom, og dro uventet da assistanse ankom. Det egensindige autonome kjøretøyet ble til slutt kommandert av en støttesjåfør.
Joel Johnson har spilt inn flere dusin videoer som dokumenterer turene hans i Waymo-robotaksen, som han legger ut på nettstedet og YouTube-kanalen hans.
video 54 beskriver hvordan en tur forrige uke i Chandler, Arizona, gikk galt da Waymo-bilen hans hindret i å svinge til høyre fra West Linda Lane inn på North Dobson Road, en firefelts vei der høyre kjørefelt i de to sørgående kjørefeltene var blokkert av trafikk kjegler.
"Oh, so, how are we going to turn right when the right lane is closed off?" Johnson can be hørt forteller for seg selv 12 minutter og 25 sekunder inn i videoen på 35 minutter nedenfor, mens fastkjørte sjåfører piper.
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."
Stram stram
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."
Noen minutter senere rygger bilen inn i åpent venstre kjørefelt.
"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.
Omtrent ti minutter inn i kerfuffle, midt i forvirring om den faktiske ETAen for den lovede veihjelpen (gjenopptagelsen av bevegelsen kansellerte den første veihjelpsanropet), nærmet en anleggsbil sakte seg i det blokkerte høyre kjørefeltet, på vei nordover mot trafikken for å hente trafikkjegler.
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.
Øyeblikk senere begynner bilen å svinge tilbake til det åpne venstre kjørefeltet, stopper plutselig når den passeres av en annen bil, og fortsetter å bevege seg før veihjelpen kan gripe inn.
'Hurry up, it's gonna escape!'
Etter å ha kjørt sørover i et minutt eller så, stopper den uredde Waymo i venstre kjørefelt på North Dobson Road etter å ha møtt flere trafikkkjegler.
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."
Til slutt trekker Veihjelp opp bak den stoppede Waymo. Bilen da bestemmer seg for å reise 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:
I en uttalelse sendt til RegisteretWaymo fortalte om eventyret:
Lett rytter
Johnson, i et telefonintervju med Registeret, tok hendelsen med ro, etter å ha dokumentert 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 har tidligere rapportert 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, bemerket, "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 la til. ®
Kilde: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/05/17/waymo_robotaxi_malfunction/
