Waymo: Weird indecisive lane changes | JJRicks Rides With Waymo

Thanks to my patrons for making this possible! / jjricks
00:00 Ride start
00:13 Yielding to pedestrian on turn
01:13 Unprotected right from parking lot
01:41 Blinker goes buck wild
07:41 Signals left for a long time, gives up, then tries again
08:40 Seriously, what’s up with the turn signals
12:31 Lane change blocked by multiple vehicles
14:30 Weird tricky u-turn unprotected left at stop sign
15:30 Cliffhanger…

[@RJGamer-zb4lb]

I wonder if it was thinking the bus was stop and it needed to go around it.

[@JJRicks]

Most likely. What's confusing me is the second time, when it wants to change into the bus's lane

[@KevinChen5]

+1

[@Scn64]

That's what I was thinking. If you look at the display, there are no vehicles shown in front of the bus, probably because the bus is too tall for the Waymo to see over it. So maybe the Waymo thinks there's a ton of empty space in front of the bus indicating the bus is stopped on its own and not just waiting for traffic to move. That's just my layman's guess. But then that theory goes out the window when it happens the second time, lol

[@Luke_Starkenburg]

That was quite the unprotected left at 14:42! Now I want to go back to Phoenix and find this location t try this! I'm also wondering what happens with the cliffhanger ending!

[@Bobrogers99]

If I had been a car behind you, those signaling spasms would have been either annoying or confusing. Still, Waymo was careful and safe throughout the trip.

[@KevinChen5]

At 7:55 it probably could have made the lane change slowly. To me, it feels like the human in the next lane was giving the Waymo what they thought was enough room, before giving up and passing the Waymo.

[@mark99k]

Good point, and it raises another: does Waymo have any ability to sense when a human driver is being courteous/generous, like yielding the right-of-way when it's legally theirs? I'm guessing not. In all our rides (68 so far), I've only once noticed a human driver trying to wave us through.

[@DavidNorman2899]

Knowing that the software learns from all of the other cars in operation, I wonder if this might be influenced by what's happening in other cities. In Los Angeles, you're constantly battling through gridlock traffic with your blinker on trying to merge into your desired lane. Could the Waymo cars in Phoenix be influenced by what the cars in LA are learning? I have no idea, but just throwing it out there.

[@pierruno]

6:00 This person on the left is on the phone

[@MrJojo2go]

Lot of little glitches at least they are small. Programers need to refines the system.... 👍🏻😷👍🏿🇨🇦🇵🇭🇺🇲

[@LucLuc-p5e]

I really want to travel and try these cars, but I can't get Waymo 5 I cheat on my phone in terms of my location

[@JJRicks]

Dang. Do you have Android?

[@LucLuc-p5e]

@@JJRicks Yes, that's correct 😊👍

[@JJRicks]

@@LucLuc-p5e Good news! Since you have Android, you can probably download the APK from APKmirror, and then use a GPS spoofer to set your location to Phoenix. :D

[@LucLuc-p5e]

@@JJRicks thanks for the offer, but I prefer not to use a GPS spoofer 😊👎

[@JJRicks]

Hmmm okay, suit yourself :)