John Berry

Waymo is required to share some so far unspecified data w gov, per public announcement. Waymo routinely redacts such data for public release and even sued California to prevent public release of critical safety information they provide to the state regulators.

Eyewitness and photo of a Waymo robot illegally passing a streetcar, ignoring the "DO NOT PASS" sign right next to the robot:

2931 Judah St, San Francisco

Violation of California Vehicle Code 21756. Fine and 1 point, unless you are an uncrewed robot.

Dangerous scofflaw as an automated service.

Prob work as well as the Boland Amendment

Don't expect Waymo's telops to help much in a big earthquake.

bsky.app/profile/anic...

3 Waymo robots failed to handle a traffic light outage, forcing others to use the left turn only lane:

Rural Road at Terrace Mall, Tempe, Arizona

A million SF Bay Area residents and their traffic lights lost power in the 1989 earthquake.

Waymo makes bad situations worse.

OP: tiktok.drivervr6

Waymo robots have become more impatient/optimized. This intersection is the middle of one of densest populations in the USA, Chinatown San Francisco.

bsky.app/profile/anic...

Yes, I advise giving robots extra space and time so you can maneuver around them when they fail. Kinda get used to it if they are in your area. Helps that Waymo robots have the top hat lidar so you can spot them at a distance.

bsky.app/profile/arey...

They violated police and fire/emergency cordons so often they had to agree to let first responders takeover and drive their robots out of the way, most famously when one blocked the Vice President in the middle of San Francisco.

bsky.app/profile/anic...

They shutdown their entire fleet in Texas for <inch of snow and twice recently in Arizona for rain after dozens if not hundreds of their robots were stranded, many w passengers and some in deep floowater, eg this robot drove right past a flood warning sign:

bsky.app/profile/anic...

Waymo robots fail at an astounding rate for a lifesafety system (5k lb & 400 hp), which is why they have to have 24x7 human teleoperators to assist them and field rescue teams within minutes.

bsky.app/profile/anic...

Their stats are extremely cherry picked and have not been independently confirmed.

Waymo only operates where robots-only regulations allow them to stop indefinitely in traffic for no good/apparent reason, shedding risk onto other road users and often impeding transit and first responders. Waymo's relative to human safety calcs do not adjust for this.

bsky.app/profile/anic...

The previous drop off and immobilized robot left in the road was well before the Terminal 3 drop off area.

Good luck San Jose Airport.

bsky.app/profile/anic...

Streetview of approx location
maps.app.goo.gl/XTRqHwjKWpPg...

Waymo dropped off passenger(s) in the road at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport again and the passenger(s) left the robot's trunk open again, immobilizing it until a person closes it.

This time it was just past the Terminal 3 drop off area.

OP: tiktok.anwararizona2 (rotated 90°)

Uber had been operating on a small scale in San Francisco without obeying the AV regulations or cooperating with the state regulator, DMV. Their test cars were running red lights, making TV news, etc. Then DMV cancelled all their test vehicle registrations and they fled to the safe haven of Arizona.

Exclusive: Arizona governor and Uber kept self-driving program secret, emails reveal A cozy relationship with governor Doug Ducey enabled an autonomous program with limited expert oversight – but governor denies it was ‘secret’

Doug Ducey invited them and worse, Uber ATG.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Curious why the article didn't mention Waymo had done even worse than this on another deadend off Lake:

bsky.app/profile/anic...

Can't see it in these videos, but Natoma & Shipley lie in a low swampy part of SoMa gradually filled in by sand blown over the hills from Ocean Beach, according to a geo tech I once consulted. Some of the oldest buildings there have noticeably sunk into the softness.

www.foundsf.org/San_Francisc...

More queued Waymo robots, prob also for Dreamforce

Shipley between 5th and 6th, San Francisco

Tragedy of the roboticized commons.

OP: tiktok.csegovia92

rent-a-life

after all, you can't take it with you

Zoox undrivable robot struggles, prob telops assisted:

14th St by Trainor (Rainbow Grocery), San Francisco

Note a trailing crewed Zoox suv.

~block from Zoox main depot and a Waymo depot.

"After this it turned the corner pulled over into a bike lane and blocked it too"
OP: reddit.jojomcbobo

Ford, VW-backed Argo AI is shutting down | TechCrunch Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle startup that burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion investment from Ford, is shutting down.

Um, hundreds of companies did try in the wake of Google's early demos. Most either quit entirely or pivoted to military robots or ADAS, including most of the major car mfg who collectively blew >$20 Billion on this. Even created a new verb: to argo.

techcrunch.com/2022/10/26/f...

They didn't. Uber is the largest shareholder in Aurora and it has been much cheaper to buy this tech later than sooner and wiser to have it off the books & earnings calls, unless you simply generate so much profit may as well take the tax writeoff like Alphabet & Amazon.

Apple quit ADS, not Uber.

Another view of this from behind the wrong way Waymo. While oncoming cars can get by, I doubt the oncoming bus can.

Like many Waymo robot failures, safe handling/resolution depends on other road users accommodating and working around the robot.

Who or what is training whom?

OP: tiktok.hpop60006

There's no third alternative there, as side streets are deadends for cars, not for pedestrians/cyclists.

Waymo's had many misadventures in Venice alleyways, inc hallucinating a stop sign causing phantom braking in a video.

Better example of Waymo robot backup proclivity:

bsky.app/profile/anic...

Apparently, a Waymo robot w passengers in a one-way alley decided to backout instead of risk squeezing past a truck stopped in the alley:

Speedway and Eastwind, Venice, California

A Waymo robot can backup about as well as go forward at low speed, often surprising ppl.

OP: tiktok.aleksei_archer

"A truck crashed into my waymo as I was getting off."
OP: x.Raul_RomeroM

Beale St between Market & Mission, San Francisco

The left rear radar & camera were damaged, requiring a tow. Critical sensors as bumpers == fragile.

Waymo's redacted NHTSA crash report should be publicly avail ~mid-December.

Waymo is notorious for impeding and even crashing w transit. There are so many examples. And their "awareness of space" just got dozens in not hundreds of them stuck in floodwaters. They are very very buggy, unlike your imaginations of them.

bsky.app/profile/anic...

LMAO, I haven't picked any side other than to examine and present the facts as best as I can.

Robots, Waymo or not, are no more "timid" than their programming. And they are extremely bug ridden.

Is this timid?

bsky.app/profile/anic...