There’s a spotlight on Waymo driverless cars in Miami after an autonomous car stopped on the Venetian Causeway this week, causing a traffic backup at the bridge.
Cellphone video shows a Waymo car stopped on the Venetian Causeway Bridge on Monday, upsetting dozens of drivers on the evening commute.
Onlookers shared safety concerns as a yellow Jeep went into oncoming traffic to get around.
Waymo started to test in Miami early last year and began fully autonomously driving back in November.
“Safety is our highest priority, both for those who choose to ride with us and for everyone with whom we share the streets. We are committed to learning from situations like this to improve for the future,” Waymo said in a statement to NBC6.
Driverless cars have had their fair share of problems. A power outage in San Francisco last month turned Waymo cars into roadblocks as the vehicles didn’t know what to do at dark intersections.
In Los Angeles, a Waymo car drove through a crime scene as police were taking a suspect into custody.
A.I. safety experts said each issue helps engineers improve the service.
“These companies need to get it right,” said Mykel Kochenderfer of the Stanford Intelligence Systems Laboratory. “They won’t get it perfectly right all the time, that’s kind of the fundamental trade-off between innovation and trying new things and finding the appropriate level of risk.”
Kochenderfer said driverless cars haven’t been at fault in a single traffic fatality in the near decade they’ve been in operation.
“The reality is that human-driven vehicles represents the leading cause of death for young people,” Kochenderfer said. “This seems like an important engineering challenge to address.”
As Waymo plans to open doors to public riders in Miami this year, Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez emphasized safety,
Miami is all about innovation, and we welcome innovation,” he said. “But it never comes before public safety. Public safety is the most important aspect. If Waymo wants to come into Dade, with a program or fully launch, they need to make sure these kinks are taken care of.”
Waymo also has self-driving cars in Orlando, with plans to roll out soon in Tampa. Nationally, they have more than 2,500 vehicles in half a dozen cities.