Waymo robotaxi makes its rounds endlessly

https://ui-avatars.com/api/[email protected]&background=64&color=fff&font-size=0.5&rounded=false&format=pngby — December 14, 2024 in twitter

Several companies are working on autonomous taxis. Waymo is also one of them. But a video of one of the vehicles shows that there are still problems. It appears that something has lost its orientation.

Complicated development of autonomous vehicles

Developing self-driving cars is a complicated undertaking. This alone makes it clear that several companies are already working on a reliably autonomous robotaxis. Four years ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that they wanted to have some vehicles on the roads by the end of 2020. As is well known, nothing came of it. The Tesla robotaxi was only presented on October 10th of this year, which immediately caused the company to get sued.

Competitor Waymo, on the other hand, already has some robotaxis in use in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix. However, there are still problems here, as a video on X now shows.

Involuntary carousel ride

One of the vehicles can be seen making seemingly endless rounds in a roundabout. It looks like the car can't decide on one of the exits or can't find any of them. However, it is not known exactly which technical problem is behind the strange driving behavior. However, when asked by TechCrunch, the operator Waymo said that they had already carried out a software update on the robotaxis that fixed the problem.

More incidents

Strange incidents have occurred with Waymo's autonomous vehicles in the past. For example, residents complained about vehicles parked in a parking space honking all night long. Robotaxis have also had their problems in the past with fire engines in use. For example, one of the cars was parked behind a fire engine, which prevented the firefighters from extending the ladders.

There is competition

Just a few days ago, Waymo's competitor Cruise completely stopped developing its autonomous taxi. The move was justified by increasing competition in the robotaxis business. Since taking over Cruise in 2016, automaker GM has invested around $10 billion in the company.

Summary

  • Waymo robotaxi runs endless laps in a roundabout
  • Video shows orientation problems of the autonomous vehicle
  • Waymo confirms software update to resolve issue
  • Previous incidents: honking vehicles and obstructing fire service operations
  • The development of autonomous taxis is proving to be a complex challenge
  • Tesla and other companies are also working on robotaxis
  • Competitor Cruise recently presented the development of autonomous taxis

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