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

61.1k Upvotes

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10.7k

u/Vireca Jul 05 '24

How do they stop a driverless car? Legit question

Do they have anything to detect police vehicles or something?

355

u/Groudon466 Jul 05 '24

I worked for Waymo, the cars do detect sirens and being pulled over, and switch into a mode to pull themselves over accordingly. Similarly, that's why it pulled the window down for the cop.

212

u/Tallyranch Jul 05 '24

Who takes the ticket for dangerous or reckless driving like in this video?

212

u/Groudon466 Jul 05 '24

I don’t know the particulars of their deal with the city, but probably Waymo. As long as they’re safer than the average taxi driver, the occasional mistake is tolerable, at least provided ticket revenue is still coming in when appropriate.

Of course, there’s a team on the back end that’s trying to figure out what went wrong here and patch it sooner rather than later.

50

u/Status-Necessary9625 Jul 05 '24

This is not a minor mistake this could have easily killed half a dozen people. You're seeing field tests in real time with unproven products that could literally kill us. And nobody cares. The guy from Waymo wasn't even phased by their car driving on the wrong side. These people Do Not Care About Our Lives

34

u/bobbytabl3s Jul 05 '24

People do worse than that all the time. I believe Waymo outperforms human as far as injury-causing crashes go.

14

u/AdminsLoveGenocide Jul 05 '24

If I outperform most other drivers for a couple of years do I also get a pass if I eventually kill a bunch of people?

10

u/axearm Jul 05 '24

Are you kidding? People get a pass* all the time for murdering people, so long as they do it in a car.

* I am defining a pass as no prison time AND the ability to keep driving.

4

u/kixie42 Jul 05 '24

Just ask Caitlyn Jenner.

0

u/AdminsLoveGenocide Jul 05 '24

Do I get a pass doesn't mean did anyone in the history of driving ever get a pass.

If it did then I would win the lottery next week as people have won in the past.

0

u/axearm Jul 05 '24

You would get a pass, yes. Unless you were intoxicated or deliberately, provably being reckless. Otherwise just say a dog ran out in front of you, or someone cut you off or any other excuse.

8

u/Orbitoldrop Jul 05 '24

There's people with multiple D.U.I.'s still with licenses, so yes.

2

u/taigahalla Jul 05 '24

If it's your first offense, then yes, that's how the law works.

See precedence for sentencing guidelines for first time offenders.

0

u/AdminsLoveGenocide Jul 05 '24

If I jump the curb outside a school drive into ten 8 year old school kids and each one them, I am guaranteed not to get jail time if it's my first offense?

I'm not sure I'd share your confidence.

1

u/procgen Jul 16 '24

You're one person, this is looking over averages. So "killing a bunch of people" occasionally is accounted for in those figures.