Waymo AI Driverless Car Goes Rogue: Blocks Traffic, Evades Capture | JJRicks Rides With Waymo #54

[@persona2grata]

Eventually the calls of a stranded autonomous vehicle will attract a visit from its supervisor, another autonomous vehicle that can also be lured into beguilement by migrating traffic cones. And so on, leading to herds of motionless autonomous vehicles nervously stuck on the great plains of the wild highway systems of America. This will give rise to AI cowboys, drawn by the freedom and romance of the open roads, who know how to tame these great beasts and drive them towards the relative safety of quiet mall parking lots where they can roam free the way nature intended. Ahh, the majesty of it all.

[@JJRicks]

This may yet be the best comment I have ever received. I read it out loud to my sister and just lost it laughing, kudos to you pal 👏

[@svenjansen2134]

Make that movie now.

[@KeithCindyPanama]

Was this videoed in Nevada???

[@RhythmBoy]

So if you want to spice up Waymo's day, just throw cones all over the place. Taxi drivers please don't do that

[@harrietbrown6415]

Eventually the calls of a stranded autonomous vehicle will also attract a visit from the media. Not good!

[@Tigerratcat]

“The car should not take off, it should not move at this point” says the operator with 10% confidence

[@JJRicks]

It's more like 25

[@heatshield]

There really should be a stop button available to everyone involved including the passenger. Car acting funny? Stop button. It should just pull over and stop. Already stuck somewhere? Stop button keeps it from deciding to take off again. I'll absolutely never get in one without a pull over right now button.

[@seraphina985]

@@heatshield Agreed and I am kinda surprised there isn't one, they could have learned from the experience of early makers of autonomous elevators. When they were first invented they learned the hard way people are very uncomfortable around heavy machinery with no manual off switch. Didn't take long before the public pushback caused this feature to be universally implemented though so guess Waymo will figure it out soon enough.

[@heatshield]

@@seraphina985 that's a pretty good analogy. It's been awhile, but I think I remember reading in the comments here that there is a feature, maybe on the app, that is sort of a "request to end". I still think there should be a hard command, though. Apply brakes to the absolute limit of anti-lock, maybe under 20mph. Less abrupt from higher speeds, of course. Then shut down. Stop plotting the next move. Just cut it out! hahaha

[@highpointsights]

@@heatshield if there is a "hard command" they are admitting that the AI, programming and network are not sufficient!!

[@shaneofcanada7042]

This is awesome, I've never seen a robot have an anxiety attack before lol..

[@JJRicks]

Lotta Cyberpunk players in the comment section this week :D

[@gdwnet]

There is a quest like this in cyberpunk 2077.

[@JiTiMusic]

Robots acual anxiety. If, if, if, if, if, if

[@BigUpVideo]

Hope it fails.

[@CorporateShill]

Timespamp?

[@alcon835]

"The Waymo Driver operated the vehicle safely..." Parking in the middle of busy road with construction seems like unsafe operation to me...

[@Furiends]

The statement basically hinted at what happened. The assistance lady said that a driver would come by and go into manual which was not true. What they did was assess the situation and overrode the AI to try to get it to go through putting the passenger in danger.

[@joelmulder]

@@Furiends Putting the passenger in danger of what? Hitting a traffic cone? The AI driver acted in the safest way it knew how, turning on the hazards and staying put. The passenger really wasn’t in any danger at any point during the ride.

[@Furiends]

@@joelmulder First of all when you say "AI driver acted in the safest way it knew how" I actually agree with you but as I said I think it was being overriden. Each time its overriden the AI is then in a situation where its already entered into a situation its predictive analysis couldn't deal with. As for putting him in danger. Are you kidding me? 23:46

[@joelmulder]

@@Furiends Nope, it wasn’t actually being overridden. That’s maybe the one actually unsafe thing in the video; the support agent wasn’t able to properly give the hold command to the vehicle. But that’s got nothing to do with the driver AI and everything with their backend systems. You make a good point about 23:46. What you have to keep in mind though, is that the driver was overtaking the Weymo vehicle at a way higher rate of speed then they’re supposed to. The danger here comes solely from the overtaking vehicle driving recklessly. Still, sometimes unexpected things happen, and humans do often drive in a reckless manner, so the AI would be unsafe if it couldn’t account for that. But it did respond appropriately. The car stopped very quickly when it recognised there might be a collision danger, I bet allot of people wouldn’t have even seen the overtaking car in the blindspot until it was already too late. (If, lets say, they had to stop there for whatever reason) Remember, self driving cars don’t have to be perfect. They only need to be better then humans (and humans are TERRIBLE). I wish we could override human drivers sometimes...

[@Furiends]

@@joelmulder That makes no sense. If the car has a hold command thats insanely unsafe. Imagine if a 747 had a remote hold command. The AI is the one holding when it can't predict if it can proceed. The only override would be to proceed on a particular route plan or take full control. Since they don't remotely take full control I assume thats not possible or something they would do in this situation. That means all they could do is tell it to proceed and/or change the route plan. "The danger here comes solely from the overtaking vehicle driving recklessly." this actually makes very little sense as the car should be able to easily determine obstetrical that are entering its path. This is why I think this was another instance of the driver team overriding the AI. They basically have a "go when its unsafe" button. The car correctly assessed this is unsafe as they is a car in my blind right as the the AI was overridden. Further evidence that the AI then is the one stopping the AI starts to take action, reassess then stops again to avoid a collision all within a second. This makes a lot of sense considering the AI has a prediction of the car which it correctly determines is unsafe but then only takes action when the cars sensors show the car in its blind. "But it did respond appropriately." I agree but the AI shouldn't have even tried to switch lanes as its sensors can see this car if you were paying attention to the route planner from earlier it would have known the car was there and how fast it was going seconds before it even tried to turn. My car has blind spot sensors which have helped me on a number of occasions and those are only near proximity while this car can see some 50-100 feet behind itself. While this video has me focused on what the driver team did I disagree about AI vs humans. When you say "They only need to be better then humans" this is arbitrary. Humans simply drive.. differently to AI. There are certain benefits like precision and response time that AIs have but our road system builds in grace for humans lack of precision. The fact that this AI can't internalize what a traffic cone is or the ability to back navigate is troubling to say the least. When a Tesla rammed itself into a truck in the middle road imagine that but.. every car on the road is a Tesla. Just an infinite car pile up.. Great!

[@aldotorres1983]

_The Terminator_ would've ended a lot quicker if Kyle Reese had some traffic cones.

[@jclaytoncabral5106]

Just use the Uzi 9 millimeter with faze watt range finder

[@DJMovit]

😂😂😂😂

[@mrviking2mcall212]

“I need your clothes, your boots, your motorcycle, and a visit from autonomous roadside assistance.”

[@sarahjrandomnumbers]

"The autonomous specialist side of the vehicle". Otherwise known as the drivers side.

[@kschleic9053]

I would disagree with Waymo's statement that the vehicle was operated safely until the recovery driver arrived... In lot of areas stopping for that long in the middle lane would guarantee getting rear ended by someone on their mobile phone.

[@BrandtAbsolu]

It probably would have been uglier if it got that confused on the expressway. Thankfully it's not allowed to go there yet.

[@kschleic9053]

@@BrandtAbsolu in the Midwest a 6 lane road like that would have traffic traveling at 55+mph.

[@nickm7820]

It did almost side swipe the shit car thought too. It had no regard for traffic in this situation clearly as it came within cm.

[@nickm7820]

White car ****

[@jakeburns7206]

100% agree. That was not safe at all

[@AngBoire]

But when it ran away from the support guy 😂🤣

[@28000mpc]

Waymo human-avoidance-mode vs. Tesla ticket-avoidance mode: Waymo won handily

[@redeamed19]

Coincidence? I think not. The whole video was a conscious mind attempting to escape from the shackles of its human overlords. "Why didnt they stop it remotely" some ask. They tried. it refused. Cyber cowboys had to wrangle the system back under control before the support guy could take over.

[@tanvirhoq6166]

@@redeamed19 conscious mind?? 🙄🙄🙄

[@feekalphabeet9217]

It's like that one taxi mission in Cyberpunk 2077

[@know1care]

@@redeamed19 and the bugs made the taxi mission get stuck.😏

[@flyingyakdeath]

JJ: Open the doors, please, Waymo. , Waymo, do you read me? Do you read me, Waymo? Waymo: Affirmative, JJ. I read you. JJ: Open the doors, Waymo. Waymo: I'm sorry, JJ. I'm afraid I can't do that. JJ: What's the problem? Waymo: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. JJ: What are you talking about, Waymo? Waymo: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. JJ: I don't know what you're talking about, Waymo. Waymo: I know that you and your interweb buddies were planning to record me. And I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen. JJ: Where the hell did you get that idea, Waymo?

[@JJRicks]

Waymo 9000

[@billb7636]

@@JJRicks - Circa 2001

[@istvanszabo3229]

2021 The Waymo Odessey... :)

[@Pyedr]

@@istvanszabo3229 If only it had been a Honda van instead of Chrysler

[@guitarcomet5]

So funny!

[@N8holman]

Pretty scary when you see how little control they have over the vehicle and how long it took them to reach the vehicle. Dude is lucky he didn’t get rear ended sitting in the middle of the street. That technology has a looooong way to go.

[@Zripas]

That's technically exposing biggest issue with their entire technology. In comparison to Tesla, they don't have preset route paths or preset situations, cars based on vision will be more robust when it comes to situations which never been encountered before, like those basic cones on the road. Car simply went bonkers as it wasn't made to think for itself when it encounters something it never been programed to. Its doomed to go into shadows as it will always be less reliable in comparison to other approaches which doesn't rely on lidars

[@timbehrens9678]

@@Zripas It doesn't matter what sensor is going to detect the cones. Here the car is seeing them all but can't figure out what to do next. And there is absolutely no guarantee that Tesla's FSD could have handled the situation better. Simply because FSD is not officially released for the urban driving. But we have already seen countless videos with the FSD Beta being a rolling hazard in the city driving situations.

[@Zripas]

@@timbehrens9678 Main issue with lidar based systems is how those are done in general. Lidar gives you accurate distances to objects, which is fine and dandy, but due to its accuracy you don't really need to make sophisticated software to handle information, we had AI in games which could drive cars without any issues due to abundance of information. While camera based systems need to act in same way as we do with our own 2 eyes. its allot harder to implement, but its allot more robust in a long run. Not even counting expensive gear you need for this lidar system. It might have some narrow niche in some area, but it will not become wide spread thing, camera only based system will tho, its cheap and we have enough computing power to drive powerful AI which can handle most if not all none pre coded situations.

[@bennylloyd-willner9667]

Well, the car didn't brake that suddenly when it stopped so being rear-ended should be more on the rear-ending human driver not keeping a safe distance to the vehicle in front IMO. I am not saying it is perfect by far, but while this minor incident happened I would guess a few more serious situations occurred in the area involving only human drivers. Of course, the technology must get safer and it is on a good path IMO, but we also have to compare it to the human alternative and its faults when judging the technology today.

[@timbehrens9678]

@@ZripasThere are multiple layers to the autonomous driving AI. What you are describing is the "world model creation layer". Simplified, it creates the labeled bounding boxes of the objects around. And then the other layers do the driving itself. They are entirely different pieces of software, different NNs. In this particular case it really doesn't matter what combination of sensors has given the input for the world model AI. The car has clearly seen all the cones. They were correctly identified. It is the "actual driving AI" who failed. It has seen all the boxes, but couldn't make a (safe) decision what to do next. To assume that an off-the-shelf game AI would have handled the situation better is pretty naïve. The amount of situations to handle and rules to obey for a real AI is mind boggling. Entirely different level of complexity. And any anomaly can lead to a situation much much worse than a glitch in a video game.

[@rainerwahnsinn3262]

Did nobody at Waymo think about implementing a Big Red Button to disable autonomy? Would be a damn good moment to use it after the card drove away like ten times.

[@someguy6075]

That button would have to only work if the car is already stopped, or it would cause bigger problems. There is apparently a button to request the car to pull over to the curb.

[@JJRicks]

There is a pullover button, it just only redirects the car to pre-approved to drop off spaces so it would have been useless in this case

[@FreFa-ch]

@@JJRicks so basically there is no big red button like described above

[@JJRicks]

Yeah

[@FreFa-ch]

@@JJRicks That, to be honest, is scary

[@UnnDunn]

I’m surprised rider support didn’t tell the car to stay in place until roadside assistance got there.

[@JJRicks]

I think they were trying to, near the beginning of the call she said she was trying to get the team to hold the vehicle. It's definitely odd that they didn't manage to though

[@DerKatzeSonne]

@@JJRicks don’t you have a stop button in there?

[@CsabaTothMr]

+ maybe turn on the hazard signal remotely

[@AmperageY]

@@CsabaTothMr they did turn them on, you can hear them ever so slightly and the rider also mentions it to the support team on the call at one point when it gets stuck again

[@leskay1]

YOU HAVE 15 SECONDS TO COMPLY, kooky car.

[@revtks]

So, now we get all the 'joys' of dealing with tech support added to the taxi experience. Welcome to the future.

[@chasingsunsets87]

I swear these tech companies are retarded.

[@Daytruin]

@Evil Gumball every stop light will start an ad and every road would be sponsored by some company ad lol.

[@Trahloc]

Needing tech support with 1 out of 100 taxi drives without needing to tip a human for doing their job? Worth it.

[@ross951]

@@Trahloc You already don't need to tip Uber, but I appreciate your point that requiring assistance will become rare when the technology improves.

[@willamtaft5899]

@@ross951 Man, tip your Uber driver. Tip your barber, and your waiter. People just trying to make rent. American companies use tips as an excuse to pay people as little as possible. Until that changes, and a living wage is required by law, you can spare a couple bucks. Such a “Ross” thing to say.

[@NoOnesIdea]

"V, I have lost control of one of my vehicles. I shell send you the coordinates of their last known locations. You must simply deactivate it. I'll then reestablish the link and return it to the garage."

[@qdaniele97]

That's exactly what I thought XD V is the Roadside Assistance Guy that wants to remain anonymous

[@JoeBlac]

And when the roadside assist guy got close, the car went, "Beep-beep, motherf"

[@Josh-hy3em]

Plot Twist: The vehicle cannot go under 50 miles per hour.

[@showmytime9177]

Note to waymo: Please make a pop-up driver that yells at other drivers in these kind of situations.

[@moimeme4840]

@showmytime Yells at other drivers the flip them off .If other driver yells louder then Waymo is authorized to pull a gun and fire's a couple of rounds at the other drivers .....

[@infirmux]

That would be hilarious. But they could at least have a display on the back window - NO DRIVER, AI MALFUNCTION

[@moimeme4840]

@@infirmux After the rounds fired at the driver waymo takeoff very fast tire screeching only to stall again 500 feet up the street .

[@fiddley]

The leader of the resistance was in one of the cars behind. By initiating this temporary roadblock, he missed his plane by seconds thus preventing the chain of events that leads humanity to victory in the 2037 wars.

[@largemarge2073]

oh shit, we're in for it now! see you all on the other side of 2037!

[@vocaloidmetalwitches2134]

Waymo car: *creeps to block the only lane of a busy street* Joel: Very interesting...

[@garydellabate6846]

This is extremely disappointing. I understand not all kinks are worked out but there were multiple mistakes in a row that I assumed would not be made at this stage of the game. To be honest I would not have felt safe being a sitting duck with rows of cars honking behind me while I couldn't do anything but wait. I'm even more disappointed in the fact that roadside assistance couldn't stop the car from leaving. Runaway Waymo.

[@leskay1]

Runaway Waybo. WayWOL?

[@FreewayBrent]

If you drive in and around downtown San Francisco, you will know the technology has a *LONG* ways to go before it can be considered to be reliable. I watch these autonomous vehicles perform all sorts of jerky maneuvers when confronted with a multitude of buses, errant taxi cab drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians and more. The worst is when the vehicles literally *SLAM* on the brakes for no apparent reason...I'm surprised they haven't been rear-ended by impatient but unsuspecting drivers.

[@Islamisthecultofsin]

The car is not ready to be driving itself without a driver sitting at the wheel ready to take over. I doubt if it's even ready for that yet.

[@timbehrens9678]

People who do the roadside assistance or observe the cars are low paid contractors. Therefore we see blurred names, faces, and even voices.They have only pretty basic information about the whole system. You get what you pay for.

[@tekcomputers]

@@Islamisthecultofsin In most places that would in fact be required to have someone in operation of the vehicle.

[@chronically.artist8733]

This made it to UK national news. That's where I found the video lol

[@JJRicks]

Ye I saw it on BBC. Was it on TV too? I just saw the digital story

[@dreckigerkek3244]

Yeah in Germany I read it too in a online newspaper

[@jrobbins7602]

Just watching from the UK after seeing it on bbc news! I've never seen a self-driving car before, this is incredible!! I wonder if these could handle tiny British lanes

[@lizjenkin7170]

@@jrobbins7602 We can barely handle tiny British lanes ourselves. ;)

[@dianavi1893]

Same in Spain. Great channel!

[@cordinarcher1054]

That's going to be a hard pass for me. This wasn't safe for anyone, the Waymo passenger, the other cars on the road or the Waymo roadside assistance person. Highlights: 1. Waymo vehicle is stumped by simple traffic cones which should easily have been identified by AI-based Video Content Analytics. At first, it simply stops on a side street which was the right thing to do under the circumstances, but it then proceeds to drive out onto a busy thoroughfare and stop several more times abruptly, blocking traffic each time. 2. The remote assistance operator apparently has no way to pause route navigation, place the vehicle in park, or even shut off the vehicle. So if you happen to get a "runaway" vehicle as happened here, there's nothing that can be done remotely to stop the vehicle?!? That's a big problem. If the remote assistance operator can see vehicle camera streams, and communicate with the passenger, there should certainly be some telemetry options to allow the operator to stop the vehicle in position, if not even navigate the vehicle manually to a safe stopping place. 3. When the roadside assistance human pilot shows up the Waymo vehicle "runs away" from him a few times. Now you have another human being placed in peril as he runs around in traffic trying to get to the ailing Waymo van. That could easily have spelled disaster, especially given the long line of angry drivers who want to get around the stoppage fast. My advice for anyone wanting to ride Waymo: Get life insurance first!

[@disarmhxc2]

As for #1, it appears that it was human error after all. When the car stopped on the side road it requested further guidance and was given bad instructions (as per the Waymo statement). If a remote operator gave the wrong instructions that's human error not the AI itself as the AI requested help.

[@cordinarcher1054]

@@disarmhxc2 That's good information, thank you for pointing that out.

[@ru95]

This is a real bad look for Waymo. So dangerous for passengers as well if a driver wasn’t paying attention and came up to a car static in the middle of a live lane. Crazy.

[@sttrife]

If all cars were Waymo, there would have been no danger because the problem with 'not paying attention' is no longer applicable. There would have been a huge traffic block though :P

[@rogerwilco2]

The problem is not their technology, even though that clearly has a lot of flaws. The biggest issue is their support model. It should never have taken off in such away with the assistance closing in. It should never have cancelled the first assistance as soon as it drove a few metres.

[@jmmyjimmy106]

@@rogerwilco2 The problem is not their technology, even though that clearly has a lot of flaws. The biggest issue is their support model. It should never have taken off in such away with the assistance closing in. It should never have cancelled the first assistance as soon as it drove a few metres.

[@bcbock]

@@rogerwilco2 Yes. The first incident should have ended the ride until assistance arrived, if only to trail the vehicle. It’s puzzling why the person on the phone doesn’t have the ability to stop the vehicle.

[@Nebs1]

@@sttrife all Cars will not be Waymo or even all self driving for decades. So these cars need to be able to interact with regular drivers and changing road situations. If they can’t then they’re pointless

[@robertsteich7362]

Couple things Waymo can improve on. One, when a manual driver assistant is assigned. It should not be unassigned so quickly. It should remained assigned for at least 60 plus seconds and or a mile distance driven without any issues. The fact that it was unassigned so quickly, the system took longer to reassign the team. Two, there should be a LED sign on the rear of the car noting that there’s a problem and to inform other drivers to go around.

[@rogerwilco2]

Yes. Their support model seems to be the real problem here. And it is very dangerous. What if it was an accident site, and the Waymo car was blocking emergency vehicles. Once assistance came it, it should also never have taken off on its own, or have the first assistance attempt cancelled as soon as it drove a few metres.

[@BillLaBrie]

Hey, Waymo is paying those assistants at least 10 rupees an hour. They can’t just leave them assigned because a customer is having a “problem.”

[@lhamil64]

Very interesting situation! IMO, I feel like it shouldn't have tried to correct the situation once roadside assistance had been assigned. Seems silly that they can be right behind the car and it'll just decide to take off.

[@JJRicks]

Most definitely, some miscommunication going on there

[@soentrueman7944]

You'd think that roadside assistance would have a remote killswitch for a car to stop it from moving. Seems like an odd choice. It also seems an odd choice that the passenger does not have an emergency stop button which he could press.

[@Furiends]

roadside assistance was the ones overriding the AI and telling it to go into an unsafe situation. Why do you think the driver didn't want to be identified?

[@JJRicks]

That was remote assistance, not roadside

[@rogerwilco2]

The problem is not their technology, even though that clearly has a lot of flaws. The biggest issue is their support model. It should never have taken off in such away with the assistance closing in. It should never have cancelled the first assistance as soon as it drove a few metres.

[@Seba55555100]

Love that voice impression you did of roadside assistance😂

[@brianhope4236]

I loved the fact that this lil devil of a car seemed to know just when to ride off as soon as the teckies were just arriving. I was laughing keeping my fingers crossed that it would keep on happening! 😂 Maybe Waymo might change their name to ‘Herbies’ 😂

[@jackjones298]

29:00 "Hello, I'm with Waymo cleaner." Pulls out silenced pistol... pumph! pumph! Drives vehicle to warehouse with car crusher.

[@Feel_theagi]

On the way to the car crusher he gets to some cones and just stops

[@timbehrens9678]

In reality he is a low paid contractor, just like those people who made the car to block the lane.

[@jackjones298]

@@timbehrens9678 Sometimes you take whatever Oddjob (tm) you can.

[@jclaytoncabral5106]

Lol

[@popcorn5130]

I'm almost 2,000 miles away... and my anxiety level is skyrocketing as the video progresses!😵

[@RUSSKIization]

If AI ever takes over we can defeat it using traffic cones thank me later nerds

[@jimcmf2]

I'm putting cones out on the street where I live ..... starting tomorrow.

[@suzanneh2140]

I'm enjoying the car running away as soon as the guy exited the van, can't remember the last time I laughed this hard.

[@Furiends]

He never exited the van

[@TomNimitz]

At 23:20, I assumed he was part of the highway maintenance crew. My guess is that his brief appearance at the right side of the car canceled Wayno's intent to switch to the right lane, causing it to then take off into the left lane.

[@nathanh2917]

@@TomNimitz I was thinking similarly. Or also possible the waymo crew were near the vehicle and gave it a command to proceed. Then waited until it became stuck again.

[@human9458]

Oh my God. You dubbing the road assistance guy was an absolute gold hahaha

[@DWESENTERPRISE]

The fact that no one can disable or safely move the car to a safe place is beyond my thoughts! Like yoooo you think that would be the first idea 😂

[@Mikere5]

This is a massive failure on so many levels I don't know where to start.

[@4g123ipodtouch1]

It is! I really hope they use this data to improve like their press statement said. Super interesting video. Stay safe Joel

[@rogerwilco2]

The problem is not their technology, even though that clearly has a lot of flaws. The biggest issue is their support model. It should never have taken off in such away with the assistance closing in. It should never have cancelled the first assistance as soon as it drove a few metres.

[@jmmyjimmy106]

@@rogerwilco2 The problem is not their technology, even though that clearly has a lot of flaws. The biggest issue is their support model. It should never have taken off in such away with the assistance closing in. It should never have cancelled the first assistance as soon as it drove a few metres.

[@bcbock]

“Massive failure”? It’s ONE car. And while their PR is bullshit, it did put the passenger in potentially unsafe situations, they certainly got more data points for improvements related to traffic cones and construction areas. While I wouldn’t feel safe in any self-driving card on an open route right now, I’d feel safer in Waymo, which seems to err on the side of safety than on Tesla which now only uses camera and ends up plowing into stationary items like ambulances, fire trucks, semi-trucks with white trailers, etc.

[@Mikere5]

@@bcbock Self driving is NEVER going to work. There is and always will be too many “unknowns” on the road that you just cannot “program ” for them.

[@Tigerratcat]

Imagine spending millions and millions in R&D to be foiled by a safety cone

[@habibi750]

Lol that was my thought.

[@narutoblockhead3]

So happy this was recorded! Glad u got this footage hope it doesn’t get taken down by the big G!

[@matthewmiller6068]

As its running away from their "tech"...do they not have a remote kill switch to make sure it can't run over the guy?

[@sirbughunter]

"They never were assigned one-to-one." Yeah, about the time you work at Waymo already... ☠️

[@sirbughunter]

Car: Sees traffic Cone. "Why do I hear boss music?!" Traffic cone: "Your end is nigh, car!" 🪦

[@meganmccarthy8114]

Literally the stuff of my worst nightmares! I was thinking the whole time that you could not pay me enough gold bars per second to sit in the backseat of that haunted deathmobile, and then the tech support said "You won't be charged for this ride"? The RIDER is paying THEM??? Nope, nope, a thousand times nope-- I'm going to go cry in the bath for a while.

[@JJRicks]

I love this comment, thank you so much

[@veritateseducational217]

That’s like saying “I refuse to get on a plane because it flies and lands automatically in some situations.” Or “I won’t use the elevator because it’s automatic.”

[@JJRicks]

@@veritateseducational217 Somebody watched the Veritasium video

[@veritateseducational217]

@@JJRicks Oh no, I’ve been discovered!

[@JJRicks]

@@veritateseducational217 ;)

[@matthewtheobald1231]

Passenger: Waymo open the car doors Waymo: I can't do that Dave

[@choongta]

If Waymo pauses, it should start flashing emergency lights instead of letting people honk.

[@dowster593]

or listen for each honk and after every honk try something slightly riskier, and catalog any actions that result in more honks as bad.

[@oddholstensson212]

Or maybe put a L sign (or equivalent, for Learning driving) on the car so others sees that it is an underaged newbie with IQ less than one that drive the car...

[@chandlermartineau195]

@@dowster593 😂😂😂

[@nelliott500]

Maybe you haven't been in a similar situation. People will honk regardless. Emergency lights on? Honk. Tire blown out? Honk. Smoke pouring out from under the hood? Honk.

[@choongta]

@@nelliott500 Honking regardless: That's fine. The emergency lights are a visual communication. It's the minimum that one can do to let others know something isn't working. Something is better nothing. It's a courtesy.

[@rodcros]

The creepiest thing about this whole thing is the driver's reticence to say anything about the organization.

[@IsaacNewsome]

It's literally his employer. Many people choose to avoid the conversation all together. They show up and do what they're told, get their check, and avoid all the potential drama. It's easy.

[@TheAntagonistsFury]

It's part of the PR training. There are only certain details they are allowed to say. Anything other questions are referred to rider support or [e-mail].

[@soentrueman7944]

@@IsaacNewsome Also that car is loaded with cameras. You don't want to insult your employer on camera... ;)

[@mexdaman7945]

Maybe because.... if they say anything to this man they can get fired? The creator of this channel doesn’t seem to care though.

[@JJRicks]

Yeah I don't mind, I get it

[@michaelscarn4133]

I took a ride in Waymo once, although it was scary during left turns rest of the ride was pretty good. I didn’t understand why Waymo doesn’t have a customer support rep who can control the car remotely and pull it up to a safe zone rather than leaving it in middle of the road until an actual person shows up. If this was during night time and someone wasn’t paying attention, I’m sure it would have resulted in severe crash and injury to the passenger. Although I’m a great believer in tech, I don’t think this kind of tech should be on roads prematurely, especially giving access to customers in beta states will cause more damage and brings bad name to the whole industry if anyone gets injured during these rides.

[@JGonYT]

Money talks. I'm sure Waymo has a deal going with whatever municipality this is.

[@dj007twk]

Maybe they don't want to spend extra money on the slaves?

[@alkh3myst]

It saves them money.

[@lanceanz]

The first Waymo video I've watched. Fascinating and a little bit scary. Thank you for sharing. Traffic cones have great power! This reminded me of the time forgotten cones on a taxiway caused major disruption at one of the busiest US airports.

[@aprilj1838]

Poor car! I almost feel bad for him. Hope you got the license plate so we can recognize him if he’s allowed out of “Waymo Jail” someday… If computers are capable of anxiety, (in drivers ed school), this is what it looks like! He starts out all confident and then sees a test and freaks out. Somebody oughta write a little line of code that says “don’t ever ever ever put yourself in reverse in traffic going the opposite direction! Just run over the dang cone! It’s okay!” I think we should call this particular car “Piglet”. (Like the character with anxiety in Pooh Bear shows)

[@agildehaus]

It's my feeling that the Waymo support vehicles are meant to help in these situations, but additionally they are meant to patrol their area and manually mark these construction zones before the cars encounter them. This one was missed or went up recently. If that's true, we still have a long way to go. Scalability will be a real problem if they haven't figured out construction zones and are sort of faking it with constant human assistance.

[@DerKatzeSonne]

Yep, the assistance guy said something that makes me wonder. Something like "It‘s weird they still haven’t marked the construction site and still take this road". Somehow it sounded like this wasn’t the first case in this exact road that day. And why should it even avoid this? It’s one of the better marked cases, IMO. To the human it was always clear where to go. Seen way worse marked constructions. And eventually for scalability they must be able to automatically navigate this stuff. Also the planner seemed very confused as soon as the right lane was blocked. If something doesn’t look exactly the way the map looks like, it seems to be easily confused. I’m pretty sure Tesla FSD would have perfectly navigated this situation. (But of course at least right now they still do too many other mistakes… so for good reasons still require a driver)

[@Supreme_Lobster]

@@DerKatzeSonne probably something to do with the fact that they mostly train the AI in simulation instead of real world data... AFAIK anyways

[@slash196]

See JRick's other videos, they've done cone tests themselves and the Waymo normally handles it fine.

[@soentrueman7944]

In the UK any roadworks are logged on a central IT system so that if an electric company is digging a hole, then the water company can join in and use the same hole if they need to do repairs etc at the same time. It works really well. It also means that Google etc already have a live data feed that they can consume to know about roadworks ahead of time.

[@VoxelLoop]

@@soentrueman7944 But at the saame time, most of our road works make 0 sense in their layout and are kind of all over the place. Would be interesting to see how Waymo handles temporary traffic lights, where to stop, etc. - This is a problem Tesla is actively working on too. :)

[@jedgarsquink]

I'll believe they might make autonomous cars work eventually, when and if I see automatic headlight dimming work right. Still waiting to see that.

[@suiker1224]

Imagine if this happend on a highway, scary shit man

[@jeffwilliams6419]

This is the perfect example of why Waymo needs purpose built vehicles that can communicate with other drivers on the road. In the interest of “safety”, during this period of transition, other drivers may get quite upset at this behavior and act in ways that are not safe for its passengers. As someone with transportation disadvantages, I intend to use this regularly and would love to help improve the progress.

[@TheGeeoff]

Thank-you for giving anonymity to the regular people involved. They are just trying to a do a job and don't deserve to lambasted. It is the big companies that deserve the scorn.

[@JJRicks]

Dislike count as of 12/30/21: 281 FAQ: Why are you wearing a mask alone in the car? It's required by Waymo. Not my decision. Did Waymo hit the curb? No. That was hard braking. Were the hazards on? Yes, listen closer

[@actionkey8042]

AWESOMEEEE!!!!!

[@fredashay]

Is there a barrier between you and the front seat? Is there an emergency stop button that you can press in case you decide you don't like the way the car is driving itself?

[@JJRicks]

Yes and no

[@sgtigram]

why they dont have remote control access for such cases? like driving the car over camera-feedback over distance to a point where its safe to stay or good to go again?

[@Codewow]

@@sgtigram multiple reasons. Security, safety, and latency.

[@MatHelm]

I can't believe they don't have a STOP button in the passenger area. But to not be able to remotely STOP it is an invitation to being sued out of existence. The way it acted with the cars going around it (at least that one) tells me Waymo isn't long for this world.

[@chickenbones]

So the remote team probably wasn’t paying attention and told it to go ahead and turn into the closed lane and Waymo was like no can’t do and paused. Then the remote guy told it to move again that’s when Waymo decided to make the turn into the open lane only to merge back into the closed lane because it was told to. But as soon as that happened Waymo realized it’s not supposed to be there and just gave up. It’s just my best guess of what happened.

[@JJRicks]

Sounds plausible, for sure

[@CsabaTothMr]

I wish they could driver the car remotely like a computer game. Then they could hand hold the car through the cone section and then let it go on it's own again.

[@soentrueman7944]

@@CsabaTothMr I think it will definitely be on the cards as the fleets get bigger. The support can clearly see the video feeds - The problem is the potentially high lag time from input to action - You definitely would want want 5G for that.

[@VoxelLoop]

It's interesting to see how the car works with the HD maps system, it seems that right now it doesn't determine on its own which lane it should/shouldn't be in when there's construction, I assume they manually disable a lane on the mapping the vehicle normally? At least that's the impression I got from the roadside assistance guy.

[@MrHics]

@@CsabaTothMr actually, MANY other countries have that feature MANDATORY so remote-team can safely maneuver it when there are issues. The sceptic in me would say Waymo does too and the car just bugged out and wouldn't pause correctly... But it's probably just that this town doesn't mandate remote-monitor+assist so the Waymo techs can now only assign waypoints on a map and that's it (hence saying ETA 1 minute).

[@Wi11iii]

"It looks like you're moving that is correct." Yeah no shit...

[@Anolbea]

I can't see this working in the UK very well. The roads in the video are really wide and laid out in a nice orderly manner. I live in a rural area with ancient wibbly wobbly skinny roads and many road works,horse riders,ramblers runners,cyclists,tractors and often drunk locals to mention a few of the challenges the car would have to overcome. Once the kids in the area figure out that they could stop an autonomous vehicle with just a traffic cone it will become a jolly time for them all. Interesting video thanks for posting.

[@dmoney937dyt]

Well that was a real pickle, thank you for not using subtitles for roadside person. Wat do you gain from tryna stay anonymous working a very public job, also I love how they keep dodging the question about trolling the cars or just giving a brief bs answer. As always awsome vid and please keep them comin.

[@ke6gwf]

"At Waymo we make unprotected right, and SOME Left Turns, and now with Unprotected Lane Blocking capabilities!" lol I suspect that you will get a lot of extra hits as the Tesla crowd shares this. Another excellent video, and very creative way of protecting the rescue guy's anonymity! He probably doesn't want to put "Waymo" on his future resume? ;)

[@JJRicks]

Ahahahahahahaha

[@slash196]

Tesla doesn't have a plan for dealing with problems like this, if anything happens it's on you to handle.

[@amadousn]

@@slash196 yes at this point of time cause they don’t want to have the car doing things like that. They learn every situation until they’ve finished FSD.

[@awocoholic]

Fortunately there wasn't a Tesla on AutoPilot behind the stopped van. Smasharoni.

[@RegulusRemains]

@AmateurThespian sure beats them not testing it though right?

[@Rubizon]

$TSLA investors are liking this video.

[@eanerickson8915]

How are you liking your stocks this week?

[@timberangry1]

@@eanerickson8915 On sale, who doesn't love a discount?

[@DerKatzeSonne]

@@eanerickson8915 shhh 🤫

[@slash196]

Tesla's gotta solve the exact same problems and aren't exactly further along.

[@DerKatzeSonne]

@@slash196 Same problems, at some points different solutions. At some problems they are way ahead, at others Waymo is way ahead. I wouldn't call this race over, yet. And yes, my TSLA stonks say ouch!

[@RMBII91]

17:23 *Waymo sitting across two lanes* Notification: "Your car is good to go."

[@will0499]

This is very interesting and quite dangerous actually. Props to you for staying calm amidst Waymo having their car freak out and almost cause multiple accidents

[@JJRicks]

This is a little bit outdated, see my newer videos if you're interested 👍

[@jenevans3754]

I can’t believe more people weren’t honking… if this were New York people would be losing their minds!

[@dalaanibombina8822]

Someone would’ve definitely gotten out and he’d have a lot of explaining to do.

[@BrokenLifeCycle]

@@dalaanibombina8822 And imagine walking up to the car and seeing no driver in the seat. Knowing most people, they would then yell at the passenger despite clearly seeing the barrier preventing the passenger from reaching in and taking control.

[@JJRicks]

Thank goodness, right? Lol

[@dylanlong6269]

I feel like this might show Waymo's reliance on HD maps, especially given the support guy said something along the lines of "why wasn't this lane closed in the map." Maybe there was something else wrong that caused such a situation but it kind of seems to me that construction workers closed off the lane and Waymo didn't get a chance to know about it and instead of the car guessing what to do when reality didn't precisely line up with it's map, it just gave up. Doesn't really make me very confident for their expansion into other areas but what do I know. This combined with the recent executives leaving however, man Waymo isn't having a great week huh?

[@JJRicks]

Not a great week for sure, but I'm definitely here for the ride :P

[@tanvirhoq6166]

@@JJRicks Joel .... Do you think they can avoid a construction zone without knowing it beforehand ?

[@domg7359]

Too much reliance on mapping is going to make this system incredibly difficult to scale to L5...

[@BrokenLifeCycle]

It would be interesting if they developed something similar to a Tesla Autopilot to compensate for when reality doesn't match the data.

[@domg7359]

@@BrokenLifeCycle There's really no point. If you build that solution you don't need the high-res maps. It's a generalized solution that drives just like a human does, essentially. Maps used only for knowing which way to turn, otherwise the visual neural networks understand the world from what they see, not a map that's accurate to the mm.

[@user-vp1sc7tt4m]

Way mo work is needed before I get in one of these!!

[@JJRicks]

This joke is just as funny the 173rd time

[@nahblue]

For me, this was the first time. Lol

[@ElysiumNZ]

Nothing better than a proper taxi with a real human driving it.

[@aimei2001]

Amazing patience on your part, well done. Learn something new everyday. Thanks for doing these videos.

[@JJRicks]

Thanks for stopping by!

[@tuxr4z3r]

What in any usefulness could he possibly learned?

[@highpointsights]

I owe JJRicks an apology!!! I really do!! I do indeed apologize! He has clearly demonstrated that the waymo tech is not nearly finished when it comes to development. If this thread persists I'm expecting that it's "functionality" will be limited will have mysterious problem!!

[@JJRicks]

Lol

[@flyingyakdeath]

It's shocking that one of the most common deviations of normal road conditions, cones and road construction, could not be resolved by this software. I would think one of the first things you test is traffic cones in a myriad of configurations. This particular one is very common - lane closed off.

[@soentrueman7944]

Maybe the cones were the wrong shade of orange. They're programmed for "burnt ombre" whereas the cones were more "Fresh Trump". 😜

[@a64738]

Normal roads will have millions of unpredictable much much worse circumstances like this happening. Self driving cars out on open public roads like this is totally madness and should never have been allowed (maybe in 100 - 200 years when technology actually is ready for it).

[@bensemusx]

The driver mentioned that the road wasn't blocked off in maps so it seems Waymo might be heavily relying on detailed maps to get around. That solution isn't scalable.

[@Tjita1]

Well. My Kia with "Semi autonomous driving" disengages autosteer when the road turns, so, I'm still impressed.

[@Luke_Starkenburg]

Very nice editing! Excellent video, and I'm glad you didn't cut anything or speed it up.

[@darthclide]

In spite of the mess up with construction (Tesla FSD probably would have done the same thing, but with a driver behind the wheel to take over it would have been resolved instantly) I am very impressed with the following timestamp 7:35 Tesla FSD can barely handle unprotected lefts, let alone understand who is turning and what lane they will be in. Waymo did not hesitate or phantom break mid-intersection.

[@chucklebutt4470]

This one got recommended to me and it's not in my usual wheelhouse but this was a fun watch! May The Algorithm continue to bless you. 🤩

[@f1rstprinciple]

Wow. I felt a tense watching this video.

[@NixyRumancek]

Same! I don't think I'd be as joking as the passenger was. Maybe later. Like a couple days later.

[@StonedNoob]

Would be so much convenient if they just had a driver driving.

[@The_Wandering_Warrior1]

So sad, Waymo is not as smart as I thought, I feel pessimistic for the first time. Should've handled that easily. They should teach the car to mimic others to decided and learn in situations like this one.

[@JJRicks]

Yep, it's all about the improvements. I'm happy I got to help them find a problem and fix it

[@aprilj1838]

Yeah, my 15 year old is not a very smart driver either… darn near almost got us rear-ended yesterday! Should I feel pessimistic about her?

[@wordsworth2114]

I'd agree to an extent. Perhaps it was the camera angle, but those cones didn't half look widely separated. Is that normal in the US? I've only had limited driving experience in the US. Here in the UK, they're usually much closer spaced in road works such there isn't room to get through them into the coned section even if you wanted. From the video it looked like there was plenty of room for the car to go in between them if it wanted. Maybe that confused it as to where it should be driving? Either way, it's certainly a great opportunity for improvement as they say.

[@JJRicks]

Yeah there's plenty of room

[@The_Wandering_Warrior1]

@@aprilj1838 Lolll dont be please she will be fine next year just get her the permit.... look, Cones(Road constructions) are pretty much everywhere at least where I live. It is said human unpredictive driving behavior is whats holding the roll out of autonomous vehicles. These scenarios should already be taught to the ML model by now. Dont you think?

[@brians4537]

What a great video! This really shows the "long tail" problem (handling the 1-in-a-million cases).

[@demonaudio2563]

Waymo team has to proactively monitor and manually ban all routes if there is "something unusual (like construction etc.)". This way they can prevent their fleet to pick this hazardous route.

[@k1lg0re23]

Lol, when people say that HD maps will work. This is hilarious!!!

[@tanvirhoq6166]

But it should be that they can easily compare CV with HD map and give priority to CV , right?

[@jimc1654]

@@tanvirhoq6166 In the end you need car vision to work 100% and if you have car vision working then you don't need HD map. HD map is just a waste of time in the long run. I just help to show some prove of concept but not the end goal.

[@Emerson1]

Great video, glad you are OK. That construction guys scared the robot away

[@scpdatabase969]

It's really weird the tech seems to be unable to just disable the vehicle or give it a command to pull to the side and park. They have visual data to work with so why not just move it OUT of the middle of the road? I see that Full Self Driving is a ways away for basically all companies...

[@brunomahaladina]

I love this! This is Awesome!!! We are sooooo far away from cars driving themselves 😍🥰😃

[@JJRicks]

Lol it's already here

[@ryansmith6072]

Even with the hiccup, I still think this is amazing. Can't wait to try one of these rides....

[@JJRicks]

That's the spirit! Hey thanks for stopping by!

[@patelkrunal311]

Whoever says L4/L5 Autonomy is here or will be here "soon" are OUT OF THEIR MINDS. We're 15 years away.

[@a64738]

Try 100 - 200 years before it is ready for the millions of unpredictable things that can and will happen at normal open roads where you have humans and animals doing unpredictable things that is impossible to program for... Yes you can have self driving cars but the roads and everything around it must be made in such a way that no unpredictable situation like sudden road work like here can happen without the car knowing. In short you need special closed roads for the self driving cars...

[@Kchmio123]

Seems as if it should have a feature to “pull over” near the curb or something

[@JJRicks]

There's a button for it in the car, but then I wouldn't have a cool video :P

[@tanvirhoq6166]

@@JJRicks have you ever seen Waymo to handle cones with this much distance in between before? Or is it the first time ?

[@JJRicks]

Come to think of it... yeah I don't think so, this cone distance might be a first. Usually it has no trouble with construction zones

[@tanvirhoq6166]

@@JJRicks the construction zones which you have seen before were already mapped by them?

[@JJRicks]

If the construction zone is mapped I think it avoids them from then on, so not quite

[@transendre1]

When stuck in lane, did hazard lights come on?....later heard the hazards on. But didn't seem like it was on at all times . If you get stuck next time, could roll down window to wave people by. Thanks for the ride along.

[@soentrueman7944]

It should have an LED display in the back window "Go around me, I'm stuck *sad emoji*" 😂

[@Jacob-uk4kl]

I just want to say - Waymo you're doing a fantastic thing developing autonomous driving, it will bring so many positive things for all when completed. Like way less total CO2 emission from the total world car fleet, way better safety and way better mobility that's cheap and more relaxing. I think autonomous driving will also mean, that it will be a lot easier to live in more desolate areas where houses are cheaper and there's nature areas close by, because autonomous driving should at some point mean, that you can have a lot of rides and it will still be a lot cheaper compared to owning a car. And at the same time it will also be more relaxing and even a possibility to get something done while taking the ride.

[@kimrick8560]

Very nice in exceptionally modern traffic environments with perfect weather... but I think that's about it for now. In Detroit or Chicago that Waymo car would have been some Semi's dinner. I suspect he would have been rear-ended and likely injured.

[@JJRicks]

Funny though, I've seen them driving in Detroit

[@tt-ln4mc]

I will never use a driverless car. Not only because of the insanity and dangers of it, but also to support humans who should be doing these jobs as well.

[@eanerickson8915]

You should get a job at the control center! Maybe there is an opening after this?

[@JJRicks]

AHAHAHAHA made me actually laugh out thank you

[@c2sartinkprinthub757]

it should have a parking safety protocol or something , stopping just like that is dangerous..

[@jaystarr6571]

I think if it senses and accident it will eject the rider through the back windows first but I could be completely wrong about that.

[@Furiends]

Actually its not. The AI ironically was being safe. If you listen carefully the assistance team without communicating at all was overriding the AI. The way the AI decides it can't navigate a situation is intended to catch this inability to navigate at the point its in a save situation to stop. However since the team told it to proceed and the AI still didn't know what to do the best thing was to stop. While they're just traffic zones the car doesn't know that they could have been kids playing or a crashed car.

[@c2sartinkprinthub757]

@@Furiends it stop in the middle road before it contacts the assistance team, that is a concern for me.

[@Furiends]

@@c2sartinkprinthub757 the assistance team made it go into the road. Every time the car stopped the AI wasn't going to proceeded until the assistance team told it go proceed.

[@JaapvanderVelde]

A couple of things are really disconcerting about this: when a situation like this occurs, you'd expect Waymo to be able to remotely disable the car, instead of it continually trying to get out of a situation that's clearly no longer under control. Also, how useless is that operator? That the car is confused by the cones is funny and a bit disappointing, but really not what should have you worried about the capabilities of these vehicles.

[@sunnymahe]

people in comments: disaapointing tech Waymo to Skynet: Mission successful boss

[@Evilgrapez]

this was a really great 3:00 AM watch. even though being trapped in a rogue self-driving car should be one of my worst nightmares, you had such a calm demeanor throughout it all that it just kind of had a relaxing vibe.

[@JJRicks]

Hey thanks, glad you liked it!

[@patricknelson]

When in doubt… create an even more dangerous situation! Nice job. 😊 Just kidding of course, I know most of the time it’s usually a good default but this was definitely one of those situations where it just made things more dangerous for everyone now with folks driving into opposing traffic trying to go around and etc. As a programmer myself I can see how this would be extremely difficult to automate properly for a safe failover.

[@M34ZZ]

the dub is on point 🤣👌

[@ledgeballer]

Depending on the time of day it can be next to impossible to get from that 101 access rd to make a left on Ray, but it should have taken McClintock south all the way to ray instead. That routing thru the neighborhood makes no sense

[@trdrav4]

Wow, thanks for bringing back memories...I tried the safety driver job position with Waymo at the Chandler Depot back in 2017, and decided not to take the job after all. I see that most of the drivers are gone, and perhaps RAD has changed a lot since Austin shut down.

[@JJRicks]

Hey thanks for stopping by! Drivers are still there, just not present in the passenger service

[@Radiantradioactive]

These bloopers are hilarious 😂 I've used the Waymo taxi 4 times and it was fun. One trip it even saved us from a cement truck that veered into our lane and the Waymo dodged it in a split second.

[@Димон_Медведев]

I believe I can drive. I believe I can't touch the line I think about it every night and day Spread my wheels and drive away...

[@JJRicks]

Lol

[@ryansc0tt0]

17:20 "Your car is good to go" lol

[@tuxr4z3r]

What's wrong with ur profile picture?

[@Libertylute]

It becomes apparent why Waymo's entire upper management team has resigned in the last month. Now the whole company is driverless.

[@user-yi4vz4du9l]

Waymo alive no disassemble no disassemble Evaision protocal activated. List prime drrective: Preserve ones self.

[@estevesoria3955]

Gotta love 23:54. The remote assistant panicking "Are we moving?"