Not ready for prime time?
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Waymo is getting close to the official launch of their driverless vehicles in Nashville, but as they put the finishing touches on the service, some Nashvillians say the cars are already causing problems.
Contractor Kurt Owens had a run in with one while working a construction site in Wedgewood-Houston in the early morning hours of March 2.
“We set up a crane and everything was fine until one of the guys came and got me over here and he says, ‘Man, we got a problem,’” Owens said.
That problem turned out to be a Waymo autonomous vehicle that had driven itself into their construction site.
“I was like, ‘Oh, they got people in them, they’re just training,’” Owens said. “He said, ‘No, man, there’s nobody in there and it won’t move.’”
Owens said it took a few tries calling the Waymo support line before they eventually got the car to move.
Waymo driverless cars causing issues before official Nashville launch
I had seen Waymo cars scooting around Nashville for a long while now and seen what looks like a gathering point/depot near Centennial Park. And like the man in the article said, I saw them with somebody inside till early this week and then again yesterday.
This was yesterday:
I was driving crawling in stop-and-go traffic when I noticed this Waymo on the opposite lane standing there. I passed it, saw that there was no driver and it was just stopped in between houses, no entrances or driveways as if waiting for a fare, just a random spot on the road.
After I passed the robo-taxi, it finally clicked on me to take a picture so I had to use my side rearview mirror which is why it looks like that. And whatever happened, it must happened seconds before I got there because no traffic had built up yet, and I really did not want to be nearby once it started to conglomerate.
It is interesting that they are having issues when I had at least one acquaintance with a Tesla who took an almost 500 mile round trip to a convention on what they call Full Self-Driving without having to touch the controls.
Anyway, I had thought about taking one trip with the Waymo for coolness and experience’s sake, but I believe I will wait for at least three software upgrades before I take that chance.
It's almost like the computer brain can't "Think" like a human or something. If the thing encounters something that isn't in its spreadsheet/database, or is buried so far down in the "Unlikely to happen" pile that all it can do is sit there until directed, it is just as dangerous as a person who can't make up their mind and vapor-locks in traffic. The people who would use these things, are generally the same people who realize they can't trust themselves to make decisions on the road (especially surface streets), and are the same people who program them. Is this a solution? I don't think so.
Waymo needs to add "Don't block mail boxes" to its list. Some years ago there was a pool cleaner who always parked in front of the mailboxes for 4 people across the street. One of those 4, exactly which one was never discovered, finally had enough skipped mail days and did some naughty things to the offending pickup truck with the chemicals in the back. Problem solved.