Last Saturday, in San Bruno, California, the local constabulary was engaged in an anti-DUI operation when a taxi made an illegal U-turn in plain view. They pulled the Waymo taxi over - only to find no driver.
What to do? It turns out there's no option to give a ticket to a robot.
Police in Northern California were understandably perplexed when they pulled over a Waymo taxi after it made an illegal U-turn, only to find no driver behind the wheel and therefore, no one to ticket.
The San Bruno Police Department wrote in now viral weekend social media posts that officers were conducting a DUI operation early Saturday morning when a self-driving Waymo made the illegal turn in front of them.
Officers stopped the vehicle, but declined to write a ticket as their “citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot’.”
“That’s right … no driver, no hands, no clue,” read the post, which was accompanied by photos of an officer peering into the car.
Officers contacted Waymo to report what they called a “glitch,” and in the post, they said they hope reprogramming will deter more illegal moves.
Watch:
A new state law that kicks in next year will allow police to report moving violations to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which is figuring out the specifics, including potential penalties, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina told the LA Times that the company’s autonomous driving system is closely monitored by regulators. “We are looking into this situation and are committed to improving road safety through our ongoing learnings and experience,” Ilina said.
This is a fairly new technology, so there are bound to be glitches. (Personally, I'll pass on the whole thing. I prefer to have a human driver - preferably, me.)
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As is so often the case, I have some questions.
First and foremost - how did the police stop the vehicle? Are Waymo taxicabs programmed to stop for police lights, maybe a siren? Or were the San Bruno police willing to engage a pit maneuver or spike strips to stop a robot taxi? I would presume the former; it seems that would be something you'd want to have programmed in.
Second, what about any passengers? Were there any? Were they OK? Were they allowed to continue on their way in the Waymo cab? There's no mention of passengers in the story. That seems like a key piece of information you'd want to know, especially if the robot driver was executing moving violations with humans in the passenger compartment.
Finally, are Waymo taxis programmed with Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics? I should hope so!
Look, any new technology is bound to be buggy. This one is no different. But self-driving cabs are out there in traffic, and this incident would seem to indicate that not all the bugs are yet worked out. Waymo cabs are out there operating, and not just in San Bruno, but also in Phoenix, the Los Angeles area, and the San Francisco Bay Area. It seems like a quieter environment would be better to work out these bugs, like, say, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, or Laramie, Wyoming.
This incident tends to make one think that this is a technology that's not yet ready for prime time.
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