The Fog – is a horror film and a weather phenomenon. For Waymo it is a horror weather phenomenon, because the vehicles had to admit defeat to the fog.
Driving in thick fog is a challenge for humans, but it seems self-driving cars are struggling too.
As a precaution, five Waymo autonomous vehicles parked on the side of the road in thick fog on Tuesday morning in San Francisco, according to US media. Another company vehicle is said to have stopped in the middle of the street. Other vehicles could not pass while confused drivers tried to avoid the traffic jam. The traffic problems continued until the fog cleared and the autonomous cars could continue driving.
Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary, confirmed the incident. According to the company, the vehicles only lasted for a short time. A software update should remedy the situation in the future.
Actually advertised Waymo times with that Fog – which is typical for San Francisco – for the cars it is a challenge that can be solved. Fifth-generation radar, which can see through the fog, is used for this. A cleaning system also ensures that the sensors are clean. But now the systems don’t seem to be able to cope with the fog.
The incident is the latest in a growing list of incidents involving Waymo and General Motors startup Cruise autonomous cars in San Francisco. Both companies are competing to be the first to offer fully autonomous taxi service, and while they currently carry paid passengers, the vehicles still operate under strict rules while engineers continue to tweak the hardware and software.
Just recently, a Cruise self-driving vehicle was involved in a low-speed accident when it was struck by the movement of a articulated bus got confused. No one was injured in the accident, but Cruise ordered a voluntary recall for its fleet of 300 vehicles. In another incident, cameras and sensors from several Cruise vehicles apparently failed to detect and became entangled in wires that had come down in a storm. Cruise cars drive through cordoned off areas and a cruise car fled from one police control.
The list of mishaps prompted San Francisco to urge regulators to slow the expansion of autonomous vehicle pilots around the city until the technology improves further.
To guard against tighter regulations, both Waymo and Cruise point out that their autonomous vehicles have driven more than a million miles in complex urban environments without serious injuries or fatalities, and that their respective autonomous systems are constantly being improved.