Waymo's Self-Driving Cars Now Certified to Avoid Collisions with Emergency Vehicles in Real-World Scenarios
Waymo's Self-Driving Cars Now Certified to Avoid Collisions with Emergency Vehicles in Real-World Scenarios
Waymo claims its autonomous vehicles have been certified to appropriately react when encountering emergency services and vehicles, like fire trucks. Their self-driving cars are currently available for paying customers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, with services in Miami set to start soon.
Autonomous vehicles have garnered attention for showing unpredictable behavior when not knowing how to handle usual scenarios that humans would find straightforward. Although driving might seem simple, humans are constantly processing vast amounts of information, notably predicting other drivers' actions. Despite our imperfections, humans manage tonavigate roads fairly harmoniously.
A computer requires being programmed with all this knowledge, and amusing situations may arise if they haven’t been trained, such as the instance of a Cruise car driving off from police after being stopped for lacking nighttime headlights. The vehicle itself didn't comprehend the necessity of remaining stationary while the officer contacted Cruise support.
Today, Waymo announced that its strategies to recognize and respond to such events have been independently certified by TÜV SÜD, a purported safety testing and certification leader. Besides recognizing advanced emergency vehicle detection and sirens, Waymo's vehicles know how to respond to hand signals and directions from first responders at active accident sites.
Waymo's self-driving vehicles can identify hand signals from first responders managing active crash scenes. Credit: Waymo
Although the curious behavior of autonomous vehicles can sometimes be harmless, it can also result in more serious issues, like the instance when another Cruise vehicle prevented an ambulance from reaching the hospital, delaying an accident victim's transport. Humans instinctively understand the significance of an ambulance behind them, and vehicles need to be trained on this.
Cruise was temporarily closed down this week by its owner, General Motors, leaving Waymo and Tesla as the major U.S. companies working on self-driving technology. Tesla's Elon Musk has mentioned that the company will introduce a self-driving "robocab" next year, but its vehicles rely on cameras and artificial intelligence rather than the sophisticated Lidar sensors used by Waymo.
Tesla has been the focus of NHTSA investigations, as its vehicles in Autopilot mode have collided with emergency vehicles and police cars parked on the road with activated flashing lights, potentially blinding the cameras or confusing the self-driving system. The company has faced criticism for prematurely releasing its technology in private passenger vehicles, contending that using its customers as test subjects provides the best data to improve the system. Luckily for Musk, President-elect Trump may remove the requirement for the company to report accidents when self-driving mode is enabled.
Waymo has opted for a more cautious approach, releasing their vehicles gradually. Thankfully, the company has received minimal pushback and positive reviews from riders, as Waymo recently equalized Lyft's market share in San Francisco. Cruise, prior to shutting down completely, was effectively banned from serving clients after deceiving regulators about the circumstances surrounding one of its vehicles dragging a woman 20 feet on the pavement.
The certification by TÜV SÜD highlights Waymo's advancements in artificial-intelligence technology, ensuring their autonomous vehicles can respond appropriately to emergency services and police cars. In the future, this could potentially prevent incidents like those Tesla's vehicles have been involved in, where self-driving cars collide with emergency vehicles or police cars.