Waymo Robotaxis Pass Emergency Vehicle Review. But One Got Stuck in a Roundabout

An anonymous reader shared this report from The Verge:Waymo's driverless vehicles can detect emergency vehicles, know how to respond to hand signals for traffic cops, and can be disabled manually when something goes wrong, according to an independent review of the company's first responder protocols. As such, the Alphabet company's first responder protocols passed an independent review conducted by Tv Sd, a German tech inspection company. The firm's assessment found that Waymo's First Responder Program "meets industry standards" for responding to emergency situations, which is in line with the best practices set out in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)... Waymo is staking out the position that it goes beyond what's required to prove that its vehicles are trustworthy... The company has also publicly released its own guide for first responders who are responding to incidents involving autonomous vehicles. The 32-page document includes a toll free number for getting in touch with remote operators, a visual guide for disabling the vehicle's autonomous mode, and instructions for how to disconnect the high-voltage battery. Waymo also hosts training sessions for police and fire officials in the cities in which it operates. The company says it has trained 15,000 first responders from over 75 agencies. Gizmodo notes that Waymo's self-driving cars are already live for paying customers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, "with deployment in Miami coming soon."But Waymo's self-driving cars still attract some mockery online, reports TechCrunch: A video is circulating on social media showing a Waymo robotaxi going round and round on a roundaboutas if it is stuck in a loop. A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch there were no passengers onboard the vehicle in the video and said the company has already addressed the issue by deploying a software update to its fleet.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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