SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Another incident involving a Waymo robotaxi breaking the rules while driving in San Francisco was recorded.
There are now concerns about the safety of the cars as Waymo is getting ready to expand down the Peninsula.
Viewer video shows a Waymo self-driving car not only driving in the all-new red bus lanes along Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, but also stopping to make a left-hand turn at Post Street on Sunday. A move that according to the sign, is illegal.
Phil Koopman specializes in self-driving car safety at Carnegie Mellon University, and has done so for 20 plus years.
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“We’re seeing a lot of loose ends that the technology isn’t quite there, the companies are claiming it’s safer but things like driving the wrong way down the street as long as there is no crash they would say don’t count for unsafe,” says Koopman.
Meaning the bus incident likely wouldn’t get logged as a dangerous or concerning one since no one got hurt. We did reach out to Waymo to see what happened but as of late Monday night they have yet to respond.
Koopman has major concerns with the way testing is being done with these self-driving companies.
“I think there is no such thing as public road testing without a driver, either you’re testing or you’re done and deployed,” said Koopman.
Levent Ertaul is chair of the Computer Science Department at Cal State East Bay who believes testing is going the way it should.
MORE: New Waymo study shows robotaxis get in far fewer crashes than human drivers
“In my opinion, as of today it is pretty safe and it’s going to get safer in my opinion along the way,” says Ertaul.
He believes that if and when AI expands to self learning within these cars instead of rule based it could be a huge improvement.
As for the safety of Waymo and other self-driving vehicles, Ertaul says nothing is 100%, especially not human drivers.
“I believe that autonomous cars has a future and I believe that future is already here, and I experienced it myself and I believe Waymo is really, really good and really, really safe stuff,” says Ertaul.
As for the Waymo vehicle driving in the bus lane, the SFMTA say the self-driving cars are not allowed in the red transit-only lanes.
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