Waymo

The robotaxis did not need a driver, but Waymo has ended up paying delivery drivers to close ajar doors

by

What until not long ago seemed the exclusive province of science fiction is beginning to become visible on the streets: cars capable of moving from one point to another without a driver. And you don’t need to buy one to live the experience. In some cities around the world, it is enough to order a robotaxi from an application and see how the vehicle arrives to pick you up, identifying you in certain models with your initials on an LED screen located on the roof, as our colleague Javier Lacort confirmed in San Francisco almost two years ago. Futuristic scene, present problems. In the midst of this transformation of transportation, which aims to offer more safety and comfort, its weak points are also beginning to emerge. We don’t talk about the jams caused by connectivity failures nor of those cars that, for some reason, They start honking their horn at four in the morning. The issue is even more basic: if a user closes the door incorrectly, the vehicle cannot continue operating. The problem is not driving, it is being able to leave. In the case described by CNBC and TechCrunchare blocked if, at the end of the trip, a passenger leaves a door ajar. Waymo confirmed to both media that this detail prevents the car from resuming travel and completing new routes until someone closes it correctly. This is a basic, almost domestic friction that turns a simple oversight into an operational problem and explains why the company has to resort to human support to return its vehicles to service as soon as possible. Pay delivery people. The company is testing a system in Atlanta that alerts nearby delivery drivers of applications such as DoorDash when one of their vehicles is left with the door open. The proposal is simple: approach, close it and allow the robotaxi to operate again. The media even cites the case of a driver who was offered $11.25 for that specific task. They also detail a similar order divided between $6.25 for travel and another $5 after verifying the closure. It is not an isolated case. The Atlanta pilot is not the only example of this specific dependence on human help. Waymo has also turned to users of honka roadside assistance platform, to resolve similar situations in other American cities. In this case, some collaborators received offers of up to $24 to close the door of a stopped robotaxi. More than a local anecdote, these examples draw a clear operational pattern: when the vehicle is immobilized due to a minor detail, the quickest solution is still to send a person. Automatic doors, on the way. Today Waymo operates with a fleet made up entirely of electric vehicles Jaguar I-PACE adapted for autonomous driving, which still depend on human intervention in situations like this. But the company owned by Google assures that this gap has an expiration date, although without specifying it: it announced that its future robotaxis will have automatic closing. Meanwhile, the present of the autonomous car continues to show that double face: sophistication in driving and human dependence on the simplest details. Images | Xataka In Xataka | When San Francisco suffered a blackout, its streets were plunged into chaos for a reason: dumped self-driving cars

A blackout has reminded Waymo where its limits are

by

More than 10 years ago, a user named karmafrappuccino posted a meme that would go down in the history of memes (if there is any history of memes) with the name confused Travolta. Since then, the image of Vincent Vega with a coat in his hand and looking from one side to the other completely clueless in Mia Wallace’s living room has been used countless times. Last weekend, the Waymo of San Francisco experienced their own Confused Travolta. Detained. That’s how the Waymo cars ended up last weekend in San Francisco. Stopped, without reacting and with the emergency lights on. The service of autonomous driverless cars that circulate through the American city completely collapsed after a blackout left the traffic lights in part of the city without service. In images like the ones in this video Up to five Waymo cars can be seen completely stopped at an intersection haphazardly. Three of them are on the right side, with the emergency lights active, but another two have stopped completely in the middle of an intersection, making life difficult for the rest of the drivers. For hours. In The New York Times They report that tow truck employees spent hours picking up Waymo cars scattered around the city. The blackout, which had affected some 130,000 residents of the city, ended up causing chaos in the streets after Waymo cars will block intersections and streets. The company confirmed that it ended up stopping the service. They point out in the newspaper that they contacted the company from the city to demand that they stop the service since it was creating even more problems in traffic. Social networks show videos and photographs of Completely collapsed intersections or streets for Waymo’s self-driving cars. Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet But why? Well, that’s the big doubt. Because experts consulted by The New York Times They point out that cars should be prepared to save situations like this. In fact, they clarify that it is not unusual for San Francisco traffic lights to have poor visibility or for GPS signals to be lost and cars to work correctly. The company has clarified that if a traffic light is off, the car understands it as a Stop with exit in four directions. That is, the car should have continued moving forward when the conditions of the intersection permitted it. Something that, We refer to the videosit didn’t happen. The problem is that cars seem to be trained to deal with turning off a traffic light but not all traffic lights. They explain in The Verge that the car sends a video and images to a human when it finds itself in an exceptional situation that it does not know how to deal with and it shows it the way. The problem is that, in the event of a blackout, it is difficult for the available bandwidth to allow this data to be sent. Click on the image to go to the original tweet The Tesla case. Given the chaos caused by Waymo’s robotaxis, Elon Musk did not take long to score the goal. The reason is that the autonomous driving system has been built on neural networks that They use the data of millions of drivers to show the car how it should behave. In fact, the company itself, in one of the updates to the FSD, its most advanced driving assistance package, removed 300,000 lines of code in which he explicitly explained to the car how it should behave. Instead, it is the images and data captured by the millions of cars on the road that show each unit what it should do. This has its drawbacks, such as a car decelerates without reason when encountering a police vehiclebut it has many advantages when it comes to smoother driving. In addition, it is easier to face unforeseen events because with so many cars on the streets it is relatively easy for someone to have faced an unexpected situation, whatever it may be. Unforeseen. Currently, the biggest enemy of autonomous driving is precisely this: face the unexpected. And it is not the first time that autonomous cars cause images in which streets or intersections collapse due to communication failures or misinterpreting signs and warnings. For example, one of the cars Cruise ended up running from the police because he didn’t know how he should act when faced with the emergency lights of the car that was chasing him. The car, on that occasion, had to be turned off remotely. And widespread discontent. Although robotaxis have ended up becoming another part of the San Francisco landscape, to the point of being a tourist attraction, since these services were launched they have provoked all kinds of protests and actions by neighbors against them. Some as simple as putting a cone on the hood. And autonomous cars have crossed the line of what city residents are willing to suffer. The crossings collapsed due to a blackout have been the latest case but only a few weeks ago a Waymo car ran over a well-known cat in one of the neighborhoods in which they operate. Reactions to the case showed that, although a self-driving car is involved in fewer accidents, we are more critical of the system than when the car is operated by a human. Not to mention the Cruise case, which ended up losing his license (although he later recovered it before abandon permanently) for being involved, among others, in an incident in which a neighbor was run over and the car instead of stopping He drove over her and parked on her. It was also the case that the failure in one of their cars caused the delay of emergency services in a fire where one person lost their life. Photo | Waymo and Georg Eiermann In Xataka | I have tried a fully autonomous taxi. This is what it’s like to … Read more

Waymo lands in the great litmus test of its cars

by

Hello, London! With a simple and straightforward message, Waymo has confirmed that next year it wants to operate its driverless robotaxis in the city of London. For now, the company has to work with the authorities to win their favor if it wants to have full availability next year. It is a litmus test for fully autonomous driving in Europe. What is already known. Although it has been reported in numerous media outlets that Waymo will offer driverless trips next year, the truth is that this is not entirely the case. What Waymo has announced It is their intention to be able to offer this service but first they have to gain the trust of the regulators. For now, the company that was born from a spin-off of Google’s autonomous car will begin to operate with a human behind the wheel in specific spaces within the city. Once you obtain approval from the authorities, you will be able to offer this service to citizens. Why London? Waymo’s choice of London is no coincidence. It is not even the only company that aspires to put fully autonomous cars on the streets in the English city. Uber and Lyft They also have their own plans. If London ends up giving the go-ahead to any of these companies, it will be the first city in Europe to allow this service. The announcements have been coming in cascade since last June It will be confirmed that the United Kingdom aspires to allow these services from the spring of 2026. The British Department of Transport has advanced the deadlines by one year and they hope that in 2027 the services can be active throughout the country. A trial by fire. Although up to three companies have already shown their intention to put their cars on the street, what we will see in London will be the confirmation of whether the technology is mature enough so that cars circulate correctly in European cities. London, like many European cities, did not plan the center of its cities that date back to the Middle Ages. The network of narrow streets, complex intersections, roundabouts and a greater number of pedestrians is a challenge for robotaxis that must be able to process an almost unimaginable number of variables in real time. And the variety of scenarios and dangers that any car faces in the center of European cities has been presented as the main obstacle for companies that intend to put their robotaxis on the streets but also for companies like Tesla that aspire to have its most advanced autonomous driving systems. With leaden feet. Although the United Kingdom has its own plans, the truth is that Europe has been cautious in the field of autonomous driving. At the moment, only Mercedes has permission to circulate without the driver paying attention to what is in front of them. Of course, on previously mapped roads, with good lighting and a maximum of 60 km/h. That is to say, the system is as expensive as it is slow. The other actor that leads the way is Ford. The North American company has permission for its drivers circulate without hands in the United Kingdom and over thousands of kilometers within the European Union. Of course, the roads must be previously mapped and the driver must be able to take control immediately if the situation requires it. Companies, however, have been pressing for some time for Europe to expedite a regulation that never seems to come. The most active has been Tesla, which has published videos showing cars with the Full Self Driving activated to circulate completely autonomously in spaces as complicated as Rome either Paris. The security. The big problem that companies face is security. Waymo claims that its cars are 78% less likely to suffer an accident with injuries than a human. And the website where they announce their intentions in London it is a continuous reference to its security systems. The great obstacle for companies is to convince that this is true because when a vehicle of this type plays a leading role in an accident with fatalities, it generates more distrust than if the vehicle is driven by a human being. It must be taken into account that the autonomous car has to coexist with the decisions of other human beings, so the consequences, in part, of an accident may escape their control. To this we must add that the vehicle must understand without errors what it should do at all times. This can be a significant obstacle when a computer failure occurs, a loss of connection or, simply, a new situation that had never been contemplated. In San Francisco, for example, Cruise cars have been accused of hinder emergency services. What’s at stake? According to the most optimistic perspectives, a business close to 600 billion dollars in less than a decade for driving. autonomous (including the possible services that manufacturers incorporate to their individual clients. It is the great hope for companies that have already burned tens of billions of dollars. Obviously, the business is in a drastic reduction in operational costs which puts human drivers at risk. For now, in Guardian They report that taxi drivers have received the news with skepticism, pointing out that Waymo’s service in the United States is more like a tourist attraction than just another mobility alternative. Photo | Waymo and Joshua Ziss In Xataka | In case the electric car was not enough, Europe is missing another train: that of autonomous cars

Europe will begin to see robotaxis in its streets in 2026. The surprise is that it will not be Waymo who unfolds them

by

Lyft has taken an unexpected step to compete with Uber in the European market of Robotaxis. The US company has just announced A strategic alliance with China Baidu To display autonomous vehicles in the United Kingdom and Germany From 2026. The play comes after Lyft will buy the German Freeow platform For 197 million dollars, marking its first expansion outside North America. Robotaxis to the conquest of Europe. While Waymo It is still the world reference in Robotaxis, Europe is becoming the new battlefield for autonomous driving companies. United Kingdom has accelerated its regulatory schedule and hopes to have commercial services working in spring of 2026. Germany also advances to legislate this technology, creating a window of opportunity that several companies want to take advantage of. Lyft’s strategy. The company had lost ground in front of Uber, which already It has agreements with more than 18 companies of autonomous driving and plans to launch services in Europe the same year. Lyft needed a quick response and has found it in Baidu, whose service Apollo Go It already operates more than 1,000 vehicles in 15 cities and has completed 11 million journeys. The RT6 Baidu, electric vehicles specifically designed to operate without driver, will be integrated into the LYFT application. A division of labor. Lyft will be in charge of the platform, customer service and fleet logistics, while Baidu will contribute vehicles and autonomous driving technology. It is a strategy that allows Lyft to quickly access proven technology without having to develop it internally, something that both Lyft and Uber They left years ago After initially betting on your own programs. Between the lines. The entry of Chinese companies into the European autonomous mobility market marks a turning point. While the United States keeps Baidu and other Chinese companies outside its domestic market for national security reasons, Europe is showing a more open attitude (although It depends on the sector). This could give China an important competitive advantage in the development of these services on a global scale. And now what. That the alliance is successful in our continent will depend on three factors: regulatory approval, the acceptance of the European public towards Chinese autonomous vehicles, and Lyft’s ability to compete with Uber, which will arrive with Waymo and other Western technologies. Everything indicates that, in a few years, Europe will become the hardest battlefield for robotaxis. Cover image | Waymo In Xataka | A “fine” on the windshield, a QR and a false website: thus begins the scam that tries to steal money from your card

Waymo promised them very happy as a world leader in Robotaxis. Now Baidu has just advanced on the right

by

Chinese robotaxis just advanced the United States for the first time in the race for autonomous transport. Baidu announced that his service Apollo Go has completed 11 million tripsovercoming the 10 million reported by Waymo. Why is it important. This advance marks a turning point in a technology that defines the future of urban transport. China has needed only two and a half years to overcome the company that launched the first completely autonomous service in the world in 2020, after a long stage of R&D as part of the “Other bets“From Google. The contrast. General Motors announced that He left his Cruise project At the end of 2024 after spending 10,000 million dollars on it. Motion had to pause its operations for economic causes. Meanwhile, Weride and Pony.aiboth Chinese, expand through Europe and the Middle East thanks to alliances with Uber. In Xataka I have tried a totally autonomous taxi. This is traveling without driver In figures: A journey in Robotaxi costs 35 cents per mile in China. That same trip costs about 2 dollars in the United States. China and its 1.4 billion inhabitants make up a market that quadruples to the American. That is a natural advantage of scale impossible to replicate. The panoramic. China has built its advantage over three pillars: Favorable regulations in more than 50 cities. Competitive automotive supply chains worldwide. Enthusiast government support that considers the autonomous car as a key area of ​​innovation. {“Videid”: “X8Clg26”, “Autoplay”: False, “Title”: “Baidu World 2022 Say hello to the apollo rt6, Baidu’s Next-Gen Av”, “Tag”: “Baidu”, “Duration”: “53”} And now what. Tesla announced that I was going to launch his service in Austin this monthbut competition has been globalized. Baidu is already testing in Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates, with filtered plans to do the same in Switzerland and Türkiye. Nevertheless, Chinese companies are still looking for financing: Not even its huge market by population serves to survive in a sector that has not yet achieved black numbers. Deepen. McKinsey estimates that the robotaxis will not reach commercial scale until 2030, requiring billions of extra dollars to achieve a completely autonomous capacity. In Xataka | There are only two confirmed data of the launch of the Xiaomi Yu7: that we do not know its price and that the waiting list is one year Outstanding image | Apollo Go (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news Waymo promised them very happy as a world leader in Robotaxis. Now Baidu has just advanced on the right It was originally posted in Xataka by Javier Lacort .

Waymo Robotaxis have become a weapon for police control. And in Los Angeles they are burning them

by

What started as a protest against raids Anti -immigration in the United States resulted in bell battles in the streets of Los Angeles and the mobilization of 2,000 national guard and 700 Marines. This morning. Donald Trump has confirmed that he will double the forces of this first body and, before the doubts about your legality, has confirmed that 4,000 troops will be deployed of the National Guard. For four days, the tension has increased to the point of confronting against the police, attacking various shops and burn cars. And in the middle of this whole fight, there is a clear affected by protests: Waymo. Click on the image to go to the original tweet Waymo, objective of protests No t -shirt, with the face covered and waving a flag of Mexico uploaded to the roof of a completely vandalized Waymo car. It is undoubtedly one of the most representative images of the protests that are being carried out in the United States. “Sometimes an image says everything to say”, Aldo Butazzoni points out in its publicationconservative journalist who is following the disturbances in the street. Getting to the Waymo vehicle roof is no accident. The company that has active a robotaxis service in the city is being one of the companies that are receiving more attacks, seeing how protesters completely destroy their cars. Last June 8, A photograph went viral. He showed at least three vehicles on fire. The company raised the figure to five cars and confirmed that it temporarily paused the service before the protests. In Los Angeles Times They assured that the protesters came to launch shared scooters of the Lime company against vehicles to access the interior. In his photographs a person is also seen trying to break one of the front windows with a skate table. But why this virulent attack on the company? Beyond the obvious damage to urban furniture with the burning of these cars and the intention of making difficulties to the police work, everything indicates that the company is being hard attacked by the protesters for deeper reasons. Since Waymo launched, attacks on the company have been multiple. In July last year, a person was accused of clicking the wheels to 17 Waymo vehicles. But it has not been the only vandalism, the previous months caught fire and destroyed the company’s cars in Los Angeles and San Franciscowhere they also operate. “Waymo lacks humanity. It is expensive and politicians, who have encouraged it, use it as an excuse to stop financing public transport. I hope Waymo collapses. With these words, Elise Joshi, well -known climatic activist, his position against Waymo attacks these days in these days explained in these days A publication in X. The Waymo service has always been surrounded by controversy. Although they are already approaching the 800,000 monthly travelersthe company has had to deal with the opposition of those who see in the service an attack against public transport, one more tool of the great technology of earning money without using people and a problem in day -to -day mobility. In recent years we have seen, for example, how Erobotaxis services caused various mobility problems. Some of little importance, such as almost 600 fines that accumulated Waymo cars for parking where they should not in a single year. But also more serious, like Cruise’s car than parked on top of a woman hit or the vehicles that complicated the work of firefighters. Those derived from the impact of these robotaxis companies are very wide. To the point that there are those who have questioned If they are the cause of more housing problems in cities like San Francisco. Constant surveillance There is another great derivative of why Waymo cars are constantly attacked. Beyond the social or political positioning before the service, when someone vandates a Waymo car ensures that it cannot be used by the police. They point out in Time that police forces are using Waymo cameras recurrently in their research. Each Waymo I-Pace Jaguar has 29 cameras to control everything that occurs around. That makes them a powerful asset for the police. In 404 average They published last April that the Los Angeles Police Department This video uploaded to YouTube To ask for citizen collaboration when locating the driver of a vehicle that would have hit a person in an accident that had nothing to do with the performance of the Robotaxi. In that article, Waymo said that he studied in detail all the requests of the police and that he did not deliver images indiscriminately but in Bloomberg They already pointed out in 2023 that the procedure for helping these vehicles was increasingly common. In fact, the media indicated that not only Waymo has been appealed by the police when collecting information for an alleged crime. Order forces too They would have asked for images To Tesla, according to the economic environment, since their cameras are recording at all times what happens around them. In fact, Elon Musk’s company has been accused of record their own owners in their homes without them knowing it. “We have known for a long time that they are essentially wheel surveillance cameras,” said Chris Gilliard, a merit member of the Carnegie Council for ethics in international affairs to Bloomberg. “We are supposed to be able to make our daily lives without being persecuted unless we are suspected of a crime, and every bit of this technology eliminates that capacity,” he concluded. Photo | Paul Goyette and Waymo In Xataka | I have tried a totally autonomous taxi. This is traveling without driver

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.