Emergency services across the US warn: ‘Autonomous vehicles are becoming a bigger problem’

“We are going back to the old ways, there are more and more violations”

In a meeting with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), officials from San Francisco and Austin, the cities where Waymo operates most. has been transporting passengers for more than a year without a train, they said that the situation is getting worse. According to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by WIRED, frustrations reached a fever pitch.

​- We notice something interesting: regression in some things that had improved. Čin more traffic violations – said Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.

Her colleague, San Francisco Fire Chief Patrick Rabbitt, was even more direct.

​- We saw some behaviors that we haven’t seen in a few years. Waymo now frequently blocks our access to fire stations. Their default setting is to freeze – Rabbitt pointed out, adding that such situations prevent fire engines from responding “timely and appropriately” to interventions.

Problems from San Francisco to Austin

Similar experiences come from Austin, Texas. Lt. William White, head of the Highway Enforcement Command, said emergency responders often encounter “freezing” of Waymo vehicles. He emphasized that, contrary to what the company promised them, the vehicles often do not recognize or react to the policemen’s hand signals, which leads to delays during emergency situations.

These complaints come in light of several serious incidents. Last month in Austin, a Waymo vehicle blocked for two minutes an emergency vehicle responding to a mass shooting that left three people dead and at least 14 injured. While officials were able to quickly contact Waymo operators to move the vehicle, they noted that in the past it took up to three minutes for them to connect with a remote agent. The company later refused to attend a city council meeting called to discuss the incident, and two chairs in the front row marked “RESERVED FOR: WAYMO” remained empty.

In San Francisco, during a major power outage in December, more than a thousand Waymo vehicles were stranded for at least a few minutes because they could not navigate intersections without traffic lights. More than 60 vehicles had to be manually removed from the road.

​ “I definitely stay up at night thinking about things that could happen and how to integrate this new technology,” Carroll told city leaders, adding that in one case, a 911 operator waited on Waymo’s emergency line for 53 minutes.

“The human element is killing them”

According to emergency services, the problem lies in the interaction of vehicles with unpredictable situations and people.

​- I believe that the technology was introduced too quickly in too large a quantity, with hundreds of vehicles, before it was actually ready – said White of the Austin police.

​- The human element is what kills them. The moment you introduce the human element, vehicles lack social awareness of what to do and they freeze – he added.

Officials also rely on communication with remote support teams. San Francisco Assistant Police Chief Nicole Jones said officers are frustrated by having to poke their heads into the robotaxis to talk to the operators, so her department suggested installing external microphones.

The expansion continues beyondč investigations

Despiteč in the face of increasingly loud criticism, Waymo continues its ambitious expansion. The company offers driving in parts of ten American cities, and by the end of the year plans to launch the service in ten more, including London. They recently announced that they perform 500,000 paid rides per week. In response to criticism, Waymo emphasized its generally positive safety record.

“We deeply value our partnership with emergency services and our shared commitment to safety,” spokeswoman Julia Ilina wrote, adding that they have trained more than 35,000 first responders across the country.

According to data analyzed by reinsurance company Swiss Re, Waymo vehicles have 92 percent fewer personal injury claims compared to human-driven vehicles. On the other hand, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched a formal safety investigation into Waymo due to a series of incidents, including those in which the vehicles drove around stopped school buses. City leaders are frustrated because they generally do not have the authority to regulate the operation of these vehicles, which is the responsibility of the state.