SAN ANTONIO – A Waymo self-driving vehicle was spotted driving the wrong way this week during a designated one-way drop-off period in the school zone near Cambridge Elementary School, prompting concerns from parents and residents about the technology’s ability to navigate school traffic patterns safely.
Police tried to help reconfigure the vehicle’s navigation, but the effort led to more confusion and traffic.
Dan Aranda, a parent of a Cambridge Elementary student, said he was not surprised by the wrong-way incident.
“I thought clearly the technology is not smart enough to read the signs that are, you know, very clearly posted,” Aranda said.
He added, “I mean, I see people having trouble with this area all the time. I would think Waymo would have not been approved to go this far.”
The incident is the latest in a series of problems involving Waymo vehicles in other parts of the country. In January, a Waymo vehicle collided with a child outside of a school in California. In March, another Waymo vehicle blocked an EMS vehicle that was attempting to assist at the scene of the mass shooting in Austin. In Arizona, another Waymo vehicle made a full stop in the middle of a busy intersection.
Alamo Heights ISD said that after the Cambridge Elementary incident, Alamo Heights police contacted Waymo about “geofencing during drop off and pick up times.”
Waymo said it received a call from Alamo Heights police and “made adjustments to our operations yesterday to account for these temporary one-way traffic patterns.”
Even with those changes, several people said they remain uneasy about driverless vehicles operating around schools because of the lack of human decision-making.
One resident said, “I think school zones is one of those areas that should be off limits for Waymo,” and residents also said they do not expect to trust the technology unless it becomes “100 percent safe.”