A month ago, a video went viral on social media The Waymo Robotaxi is stuck in a circular loop – An isolated incident with no passengers in the vehicle, according to Waymo.
Obviously, it wasn't a one-time thing.
At the same time, another Waymo robotaxi headed to the Phoenix airport, Mike Johns, founder and CEO of AI consultancy Digital Mind State, found himself circling a parking lot, unable to stop or get out.
The videos are posted within days of each other. Waymo did not confirm whether the incidents occurred at the same time or whether there were other similar incidents, but said it had issued software updates to address the issue.
Johns was stuck on Waymo going through a loop for “under seven minutes,” but says it “felt like forever,” especially since he was afraid he'd miss his flight and questioned whether the car had been hacked. It was his second time on the Waymo Robotaxi.
A Wemo spokesperson confirmed the incident. “This event occurred in early December and has since been addressed by a regularly scheduled software update. The vehicle completed the rider's trip and they were not charged for the ride.”
A Waymo customer support specialist called Johns' car without prompting, he told TechCrunch. The agent said he received a notification that his vehicle “may be experiencing some routing issues.” video Johns shared facts.
To fix the problem, the expert told Johns to open his Waymo app and tap 'My Trip' in the lower left corner. [the] app,” to which Johns replied, “Can't you do it? You should be able to handle it, take the car, you don't need my phone.”
A fair question to ask, is such a takeover is clearly for a remote assistant.
“I have no choice but to control the car,” he admits.
Waymo tells TechCrunch that its rider support agents are different Fleet Response Teamwhich autonomous driving software (known as “Waymo Driver”) taps for help when it encounters an unfamiliar situation on the road.
Rider support agents, like John spoke with, can respond to outreach from riders — riders can communicate through the Waymo app and a call button on the car. They can “initiate communication if Waymo vehicle diagnostics indicate such a need.” But they don't communicate directly with the car's driving software.
In the end, Johns said, the robotaxy was back on track following the help agent's instructions in the app.
Johns said Waymo compensated him for the ride and directed him to its website to file a complaint. The agency did not immediately contact him after the incident, but did so this week after his video was taken Major news outlets.
“My biggest thing is that in this digital age that we're in, we've become so disconnected from the human factor,” Johns told TechCrunch. “I'm all for AI. I'm at the cutting edge of AI, automation, robotics, but there's still a human factor.”
Missy Cummings, a professor of autonomy and robotics at George Mason University and a former senior safety adviser at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the incident, while small, shows a big problem that AV companies should address.
“In any robotic system, there's a big red button somewhere that when you push it, the thing will go apart,” Cummings told TechCrunch, adding that the button can be hidden somewhere in the car that's hard to reach. “And I will tell you that this is a really important security measure going forward because what if the car is hacked and there's a passenger inside the car? You definitely need the ability to remotely shut down everything in the car so they can get out.”
Waymo told TechCrunch that, in fact, “a pull over button is always available for riders in Waymo vehicles,” located in the app and on the passenger screen, but Johns said the support agent didn't tell him about it and he didn't see it.
Cummings also noted that asking riders to be active participants in fixes using their apps is “error-prone” due to potential connectivity issues and non-user friendly apps.
“I was just amazed that he was going to get on his phone to try to come up with some solution to this when this was clearly an emergency that needed to be attended to right away,” Cummings said. “He should have said, 'Look, pull the left corner of the mat on the floor and you'll see a red button. Push that button.'”