There is still time for autonomous cars to fill the roads and streets of the world. Although new cars are increasingly equipped with driver assistance technologies, they are still far from fully automated. In the race to develop these self-driving models, there are already some companies, such as Waymo, that are using them as a fleet of autonomous taxis. This is generating unusual situations such as the one that has gone viral in a Tiktok video shared by the user @johnnyromano3 and which already has almost 15 million views.
In the recording, a policeman is seen signaling to an autonomous taxi to move to the side of the road. Despite various attempts to make the car pay attention to his gestures, the car does not react. Meanwhile, the passenger is heard trying to explain to the agent that there is no one behind the wheel.
“Sir, we can’t move. We’re sorry. This car won’t let us move. We are not drivingâ€, says one of the occupants of the vehicle from inside.
The incident took place on April 16 in the city of Phoenix, Arizona. As Johnny Romano himself explained to Insider, it was the first time he had used an autonomous vehicle.
During his journey, the car encountered a parade, so he tried to avoid it by ordering the vehicle to go around the block. However, the car ended up spinning in front of the parade. It was at that moment that an officer stopped in front of him and asked him to get out of the way. However, the autonomous driving system did not respond.
Romano himself has explained that the police officer involved was not angry with him, since it was very obvious that the car had no driver. He has also reported that, after the error, he received a call from Waymo technical support.
The spokesman for the company owned by Alphabet has explained that the company will use this error as learning to teach its vehicles to respond to the signals made by the arms of the police.
“The Waymo vehicle pulled to the side as desired and then successfully maneuvered out of the blocked lane within 90 seconds of interacting with the police officer,” the spokesperson said.
Waymo launched its driverless, autonomous taxi service in 2018. Its customers can use an app to summon a car and have it automatically drop them off at a destination within the city.
