If your taxi takes you down a narrow dead end and you come across another taxi coming in the opposite direction, you would trust the driver to be able to overcome that obstacle, right?
But what if your taxi didn’t have a driver and was instead an autonomous robotaxi from Waymo?
San Francisco residents were left frustrated on December 6 when not one, not two, but three Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis owned and operated by Waymo managed to get stuck in a standoff on a residential street.
The Waymo robotaxis can be seen in video footage captured by a TikTok user what_rinna Blocking the road and preventing other vehicles driven by people from exiting.
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In a statement to the news network KTVU Fox 2Waymo – owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet – said two of the robotaxis made “minor contact at low speeds.”
“We continue to investigate this and when we encounter situations like this, we can learn from them and make improvements,” a Waymo spokesperson said.
Video footage shows a Waymo employee responding to the scene to clear the road. It is unclear how long the robot taxis blocked the road.
Just days earlier, a Waymo robotaxi was filmed driving into the middle of a police standoff in Los Angeles, even briefly stopping next to a swarm of police officers with guns drawn.
However, in positive news for the tech company, one of its robot taxis successfully transported a woman who had started laboring in the back to the hospital.
Accordingly KTVU Fox 2On December 8, a pregnant woman gave birth to her baby on the way to the hospital.
“Waymo’s systems and processes were effective in handling the situation. Our Remote Rider Support team recognized the unusual activity, initiated a call to check on the rider and contacted 911,” a Waymo spokesperson said.
The woman and her newborn were safely transported to hospital and the company confirmed that the robotaxi was “immediately taken out of service for cleaning.”
MORE: Google’s autonomous robotaxi puts passengers in a standoff with police
