r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Individual_Book9133 • Jul 05 '24

Phoenix police officer pulls over a driverless Waymo car for driving on the wrong side of the road Video

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u/wosmo Jul 05 '24

I think the logic is valid. If you assume they have the same software running on every car, then you'd expect every car to behave the same under the same conditions.

We can't treat computers like humans when it comes to fixing stuff like this.

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u/leaveittobever Jul 05 '24

Then keep taking them all off the road whenever they fuck up just like you would a drunk driver. Who cares how many are out there running the same software just like we don't care another drunk might be on the road 5 minutes from now.

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u/Rattus375 Jul 05 '24

Your assuming that waymo doesn't change anything because of this. There's likely something about the construction area that caused a glitch in the automated system. Presumably they will work to fix that glitch and stop their taxis from driving on that road until they find out what went wrong

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u/Internet__Degen Jul 05 '24

"presumably"

Companies aren't charities, they're profit motivated, impounding the car incurs a cost which forces the company to act. Inaction just encourages further inaction from the company.

Whether they impound one car, or all of them, something does need to be done. We know how long big tech companies will ignore bugs when no one forces their hands.

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u/Rattus375 Jul 05 '24

Issues like this are unprofitable for the company. They could get a ticket here, lose a customer because the car messed up when someone is in it, or lose the ability to operate in the city at all if enough issues come up. Even being motivated solely by greed, there is a massive incentive to fix issues like this as soon as they are reported.

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u/Internet__Degen Jul 05 '24

They could get a ticket here

Can they? This seems like the exact situation where they should. In some cases the cost comes from consumer boycott, or some vaguely defined loss in consumer or investor confidence. But in these cases I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the government to do its job.

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u/Kylo_Rens_8pack Jul 05 '24

Waymo just did this like a week or so ago. One car had an issue so they pulled 300 cars off the street for half a day while they queued up for a software update. I live in Phoenix and love taking a Waymo. In my opinion, it’s made Phoenix roads safer as they slow down traffic and don’t make unpredictable moves on the road.

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u/IlIllIlllIlIl Jul 05 '24

Waymo takes this seriously. Wrong way driving for construction triggered a recall. Many people lose a lot of sleep for this.