Waymo stops self-driving car systems that require human intervention

Google sister company Waymo has decided to no longer develop systems for self-driving cars that make it necessary for occupants to intervene in certain situations. According to the company, it is too dangerous to assume human intervention.

The decision came after experiments showed that drivers fell asleep, touched up their makeup or played with their smartphones while driving in self-driving cars. All this happened, for example, while the cars were traveling at 90 km/h.

Originally, Waymo, like other manufacturers of self-driving cars, still wanted the driver to intervene in certain situations, but according to Waymo director John Krafcik, the results of the experiments were “quite frightening”. “It is difficult to intervene because the drivers have lost their contextual awareness,” Krafcik told Reuters. Waymo will now let the technology for self-driving cars perform all the actions of driving, so that the occupants are really just passengers.

During a demonstration of the self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivan that took place in the US on Monday, a Waymo technician said competitors who also make self-driving cars are lagging significantly behind. He says the sensors on the new generation of Waymo vehicles can see sharper, further and more accurately than any other sensor on the market. Waymo is immediately aiming for level 4 autonomy, where intervention is no longer necessary; competitors such as Tesla and Audi are introducing cars with level 3 autonomy, where there is a degree of automation, but the driver still has to pay attention to the road.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Waymo is likely to start a taxi service this fall with self-driving cars that will not have a driver to intervene if things go wrong. It would be the first time that a company offers such a service. The service is to start in the American city of Phoenix. A small Waymo experiment is currently underway in this city with cars with level 4 autonomy, although safety drivers are still present. It is still unknown when this experiment will be expanded, but according to Krafcik, that moment is close.

Incidentally, it will take some time before the cars without drivers are deployed in other places; the Phoenix experiment is limited to a number of well-documented avenues, where extensive testing has been conducted. Waymo is the result of Google’s efforts to develop a self-driving car. A few years ago, Google spun off that division and renamed it Waymo.