"Engineering the software that keeps self-driving cars operational involves incorporating a number of factors, from the presence of pedestrians to weather conditions. Traffic signs are also critically important; an autonomous vehicle that ignores stop signs or speed limits is going to do a lot more harm than good. But what happens when a ubiquitous part of urban driving suddenly goes away?"
"It's possible that we won't ever know the specific reasons why the blackout affected Waymo's vehicles so dramatically. Companies are likely to keep the secrets of their propriety self-driving vehicles' software under wraps, for obvious reasons. There is one interesting wrinkle, however: Elon Musk posted on X that Tesla's Robotaxis were operating without issues during the blackout. By Sunday, Waymo announced that they would resume service."
A blackout in San Francisco caused traffic lights to go dark and produced widespread gridlock. Many Waymo autonomous vehicles stopped in the middle of roads, creating traffic jams and prompting Waymo to pause service temporarily. Investigations considered connectivity issues and noted a similar Waymo incident during an Austin blackout. Proprietary software details remain undisclosed, leaving exact causes unclear. Elon Musk posted that Tesla Robotaxis continued operating without issues during the outage. By Sunday, Waymo resumed service, and spokesperson Suzanne Philion emphasized the company's commitment to ensure its technology adapts to traffic flow during such infrastructure failures.
Read at InsideHook
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