Waymo’s robot taxis can navigate city streets without a human behind the wheel, but they can still stop for basic problems that need to be solved by a person, the Washington Post reports. This level of support, remote workers and local contractors, is part of maintaining the service.
The same weakness is evident in smaller disruptions and city-wide disruptions. A door that is not fully locked can prevent a vehicle from moving. During a major power outage, there may be so many vehicles requesting guidance that some end up waiting in place long enough to block traffic. The car takes over the driving, but recovery is done with human assistance.
Small mistakes can cause a car to break down
Some failures are simple and difficult to prevent completely. There is a possibility that passengers may not leave a door fully closed or a seat belt may become caught in the rear door. The vehicle may consider this unsafe and refuse to continue driving until the problem is resolved. There are also battery-related restores, although rare, Waymo says.
Waymo routes help through an app called Honk, which is described as an on-demand dispatch system for towing services and related assistance. Quoted pay rates include $20 or more for closing a door, in some cases about $22 to $24, and about $60 to $80 for a towing service. Operators named in the report said these numbers do not always capture fuel, time and labor costs, especially when it takes additional time to find the broken down vehicle.
What to watch next
The near-term question is whether Waymo can reduce the frequency at which it needs interventions as it expands into more cities next year. Every rescue involves operational costs, and as failures accumulate, they quickly become a public problem.
Waymo says door problems are not too common and that it is working to improve pickups and drop-offs, including educating riders. It also says it has redundant GPS tracking after towing companies raised concerns about inaccurate location information.
Hardware changes can solve some of the simplest problems. Waymo is testing next-generation vehicles built with Zeekr that use sliding doors that open and close automatically. The bigger test is to prevent remote support queues from building up during major disruptions, which then turns a cautious pause into a traffic jam.
