Mike Johns was trying to get from Phoenix home to Los Angeles. He took a Waymo to the airport, only it wouldn’t stop looping around a parking lot instead of heading to the terminal. According to Johns, the car made approximately eight full circles. He recorded video footage that has garnered millions of views on social media.
While the car circled, Johns contacted Waymo’s customer service line by phone for help, but they couldn’t get the vehicle to stop. What happened next is in dispute. Some reports indicate that after a few minutes, the car was brought under control and he arrived at the airport just in time. Others say the repeated loops in the parking lot caused him to miss his flight.
Either way, Johns complained that the customer service call felt impersonal, and he wondered whether he was speaking to an AI. He also complains he hasn’t been reimbursed for expenses (what expenses?) and that Waymo hasn’t contacted him to follow up. If he made his flight, he got a free adventure and story out of it. Many would pay extra!
By the way here’s a Waymo crashing into a delivery drone. Our new robot overlords are heading into battle. I’d note though that when self-driving fails it’s newsworthy. Human driving fails daily.
(HT: @crucker)
Guy in the video is taking his response from 0 to 60 faster than the car…”you guys are going to cover my flight!” after a few minutes of circling.
The stories say ‘almost’ missed flight.
Another story where he was interviewed says he made his flight ‘thanks to a flight delay’ and it was fixed with using the ‘edit ride’ function.
Hard to believe 8 circles in a scottsdale lot and fixing it with a tap on the app delayed him more than 10 minutes.
https://www.abc15.com/news/region-northeast-valley/scottsdale/watch-waymo-passenger-gets-stuck-in-a-roundabout-on-way-to-sky-harbor#google_vignette
Eventually robotic cars will be hacked and remote terrorists will cause tragedy with them similar to the terrorist did in New Orleans.
He deserves compensation!!!!!
There’s a button on the passenger screen marked “Pull Over” that you can use at any time
Overreaction.
Get to the airport early enough in case of problems!
@jns
Any new car these days can be hacked and controlled like that.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/wikileaks-vault-7-dump-reignites-conspiracy-theories-surrounding-death-of-michael-hastings/news-story/0df1d06403d0223ce1cfc286a1e75325
@Joseph
Yeah, boy! Get paid, son! Lawyer up, dog! Cash money! Woop woop!
I see those things all over Phoenix. I think I will just stick with Uber/Lyft.
The fact that humans make mistakes doesn’t let AI driving systems off the hook… we have to hold them, e.g. their developers/corps, to an extremely high standard or quality will just slip, like in any other industry! Can’t really put the chipsets in the slammer for mistakes.
Living in PHX those cars are everywhere. I have taken them once (round trip) and it was having a hard time finding a curve to drop me off at and on the return trip couldn’t figure out where to stop in my office parking lot, but eventually did. The to and from was fine but the endings seem to be an issue. They just starting allowing them on the highway, but must have a human in the driver seat. Overall, I think they need to figure out an “opt out” within the car in case it goes off track. Luckily, the only fatality was due to the driver, not the car several years back.
As I age, I support the tech as a way I will eventually get around when I can no longer drive, so in 20-30 years it should be perfect, but for now, we need a need an “in the car” emergency lever!
Humans sometimes circle in parking lots because they have no good options. Humans generally have the sense to revise their goals when they’re faced with a situation like that, I can easily see a robot getting into a loop of rejecting each option and repeating.
That being said, if he cut it that close on a flight he deserves to miss. Airports are unpredictable time sinks.
Gary, good to know that you’re up for adventures like this that are weird and inconvenient but don’t ultimately delay your trip. I guess I’m just stodgy and don’t desire such adventures.