Ian Rose
Journalist
Watch: the man trapped in a driverless car while going around in circles
Mike Johns did not expect his return trip from Los Angeles to Scottsdale, Arizona, in December, becomes viral.
To get to the airport, he reserved a driverless taxi and enjoyed a thrill when he jumped with curious passers -by while looking.
But he attracted much more attention than he had negotiated him.
Mr. Johns found himself led around and around a parking lot while these same passers -by looked at.
The Waymo Ride did not do what he had and there was no obvious way that Mr. Johns could repair it – and he had a flight to catch.
Mr. Johns recorded the experience, a video that has become viral almost immediately and was recovered on television channels from around the world, throwing a new public doubt about autonomous cars and how ready they are for passengers in the real world.
“Why does that happen to me a Monday morning?” Mr. Johns turned to him asking.
Finally, a voice was activated inside the car telling him to access the Waymo application to control the vehicle.
Waymo, who belongs to Alphabet, Google’s parent company, told the BBC that he had published a software update with a resolution almost immediately of the problem.
Society claims that its driverless system is “better than humans to avoid accidents that cause injury, airbag deployments and police reports”.
However, Mr. John’s experience is not the first time that the company has to take action.
Last year, the company recalled more than 600 cars after hitting a street post.
And in May 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched an investigation into 22 incidents involving Waymo vehicles.
Getty Images
Waymo says his cars are better than humans “to avoid accidents that cause injuries”
The road to a driverless future also went wrong for rival services.
In December, American cars General Motors closed his autonomous car subsidiary.
GM has allocated the change of strategy to “time and considerable resources that would be necessary to evolve the company”.
In October 2023, one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian and dragged it for more than 20 feet (6 m), leaving it seriously injured.
Meanwhile, in February of last year, it appeared that Apple’s autonomous car project was withdrawn.
Uber abandoned its own driver -free car efforts in 2020.
But some great players remain in the race, including Zook, which belongs to Amazon, as well as the manufacturer of chips Nvidia and Tesla by Elon Musk.
Waymo is the main American player. He already operates autonomous taxis in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, and promises to start soon in Atlanta and Miami, Florida.
So why did Waymo succeed where other efforts, at least in the United States, failed?
“Three things – people, money and the process,” explains Sven Beaker, lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and managing director of Silicon Valley Mobility, an automotive consulting firm.
He stresses that over the years, Waymo has used some of the main figures for autonomous vehicle engineering, he has the financial weight of the Google owner’s alphabet behind him and has become deepened in his approach.
“They came to play really through the book, to be a good process steward … Working with regulators to make sure that what they deploy is safe.”
So what is the next step?
The regions with good weather will probably see the driver-free services, according to Philipp Kampshoff, the world co-leader of automobile practices and assembled to the McKinsey council giant.
This would include the South United States states such as Texas and Florida, where Waymo already has plans.
“The Robo-Taxis still works much better in good weather conditions. Most of them still have difficulties in heavy snow,” explains Mr. Kamshoff.
He also underlines that the batteries work better in warmer conditions, which is particularly important for driver -free cars that need a lot of energy to supply computer science on board.
“Gather all this, in the second part of the 2020s, you will see a city after the other is unlocked, then evolving in these cities,” he said.
It will be a slow process.
“This is actually a labor process to deploy this technology, which includes a good amount of human driving,” said Beaker.
“You have to drive these vehicles to the streets where you want to deploy them, and you have to drive them again and again, and you must, to a certain extent, manually modify the data,” he adds.
And the entire process could also be retained by security problems.
“This will only happen if we do not meet major accidents. As major accidents are going to occur, many of these operations will be closed,” said Kamshoff.
Scania
Scania is one of several truck manufacturers testing autonomous systems
For those working on autonomous trucks, security is undoubtedly even more important.
“Security is the number one concern on which we work,” explains David Liu, more managing director, who manufactures driver -free software for trucks and works with global companies such as Amazon, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Scania.
“Autonomous trucks and autonomous vehicles must be much safer than the vehicle on average human motif,” says Liu.
“Human drivers are excellent, but not impeccable. Most of the accidents in which we realize are due to the inattention of drivers. And we do not have this problem with technology,” said Liu.
“A Robo-Taxi takes place mainly in cities in low-speed environments, while trucks are generally executed on highways at higher speed.
“We must therefore put a set of different technologies to be able to see more clearly around trucks and be able to manage a longer braking distance, for example.”
Getty Images
China Baidu has 500 driver -free cars operating in Wuhan
To see in the driverless future, it could be worth looking at the developments in China.
In the city of Wuhan, more than 500 driver -free cars are operated by the Baidu company.
Around the country, driver -free cars everywhere in 16 cities and will be tested by 19 manufacturers.
“There is certainly more competition … There are four or five companies which are very similar to Waymo,” explains Mr. Beaker who is currently working on a study of Robo-Taxis deployments around the world, sponsored by the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova.
Back in Scottsdale, Mr. Johns reflects on his experience and the deployment of autonomous vehicles.
“A great thing is that we are all part of a paid experience. In the end, what they do is repair it as you go, by city. And it’s a problem.”
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