Waymo explains why its robotaxis got stuck during the SF blackout
The company also said its robotaxis navigated more than 7,000 dark stoplights successfully on Saturday.
TL;DR
- Waymo is shipping a software update to improve how its robotaxis handle disabled traffic lights during power outages.
- During a recent San Francisco blackout, Waymo vehicles treated dead traffic lights as four-way stops, but many requested confirmation checks from the fleet response team.
- This led to a concentrated spike in requests and contributed to congestion.
- The new update will provide specific power outage context to the self-driving software for more decisive navigation.
- Waymo also stated that its vehicles successfully navigated over 7,000 dark signals during the outage.
- This event highlights ongoing challenges in refining autonomous vehicle software and reliability, similar to past issues with school bus detection.