Waymo’s Post

The reaction time for re-planning after identifying the vehicle showing up from Waymo’s blind spot is astonishing. It’s performance can be compared with a professional car driver. One safety observation that can be discussed or potentially considered about this scenario; Waymo saw the white SUV is stopping on the left lane for certain reason, maybe it observed a potential hazard and responded to it by stopping. Hence, Waymo could be more careful and reduce speed before approaching the intersection.

Former transportation engineer here: It appears from the video that Waymo was traveling NB on Alemany and the other vehicle was traveling SB, both would have the green light 🚦, as indicated by the 3-head signals on all approaches. Left turns in this case are permissive-only, meaning they are not protected with an arrow, but the left-turning vehicle should yield to pedestrians and opposing traffic before making its turn. However, there is a vehicle in the northbound left turn lane in front of Waymo, creating a blindspot for both Waymo and the other (Southbound) vehicle. Best practice would be for both Waymo and the other vehicle to approach the intersection with caution because of the blindspot.

You guys may not realize this but the AV industry is small and the way Waymo is represented is largely by the experience of the contractors that have worked for you. The tech comes a distant second. I have been hearing horror stories of how more people are getting laid off and fired lately but the latest is incredible and is a very dark mark on how people working hard for Waymo are treated. Not excusing an employee because they have to be with a family member taken off life support and then firing them when they go anyway is the lowest thing I have ever heard an employer do. It doesn't matter that it is Transdev. It is all your house. This is something so uncompassionate and inhuman, that I sincerely hope that it is something Waymo management just doesn't realize is going on, but they need to. I certainly would want to.

I’m not sure the date of the video, but it would be good to note that this traffic light is fairly new. It was activated on 2/23/24. My bet is that the human driver is a long time resident that isn’t used to the new signal or is annoyed by having to wait. Ideally cities would realize that Waymo doesn’t care if new signals are installed, streets are pedestrianized, “no turn on red” is enacted, or speed limits are reduced. It abides by the rules, whatever they may be and NEVER gets frustrated by it. I hope that cities will realize this and do all they can to encourage proven L4 AVs like Waymo.

What an excellent example to demo the avoidance feature at the intersection of Alemany Blvd & Theresa St. The Waymo follows the speed limit of 35 mph because no children present. The Waymo has right of way here to proceed straight forward at the intersection with green traffic light on. Waymo also nudges right to avoid the risk of being too close to the turning vehicle. (Seems no possible contact if Waymo still goes straight, because path of Waymo vehicle before nudging right has a distance to the line connecting between the right side of the fifth crosswalk(cw) line of the near cw area to the left side the fourth cw line of the far cw area). The case is pretty difficult of human driver because it is hard to see the vehicle waiting to turn left there because of the occlusion from the vehicle (vehicle T) waiting on Waymo's adjacent left lane. Same for the driver from FOV of Waymo car. The driver on that vehicle also might not see Waymo vehicle is coming, so it commits to turn left. The occlusion detection/planning/ SW & SW QA here is good jobs 👍 . However, it might be more challenge if the vehicle T is a bit taller like a truck. Waymo reduces speed a bit before the intersection is more prefer.

Even the example is flawed. The Waymo car was moving too fast and should have slowed down because of the blind spot.

It's the edge cases where humans can identify and adapt much better than the tech... known routes in broad daylight is NOT the impressive highlight that you need to show everyone.

Awesome! But what about the decision if there were pedestrians or bicycles? And who will be responsible?