Driverless Waymo car froze briefly during trip near Downtown Phoenix
PHOENIX - A viral video shows a Phoenix Police officer trying to redirect a driverless Waymo car with passengers in it.
The incident happened in the area of Sheridan and Richland Streets, in an area north of Downtown Phoenix. At the time, a small parade was coming through, and an emergency vehicle was right behind.
"Sir, we cannot move. We're sorry. This car cannot move!" a person was healed saying into the video.
"It turned directly into the front of the parade," said Johnny Romano, who was in Phoenix for the weekend, and wanted to take a driverless car for a quick ride. "We just wanted to do it for the experience. It was a short ride. Well, it was supposed to be, but it was pretty cool."
Within a minute, Romano and others ran into the parade, and officer trying to redirect them.
"He's trying, sir. There's no one there," someone was heard saying.
The video ends with the car seemingly stuck, but that is not the full story. Romano said he stopped recording because Waymo called.
"It was great," said Romano. "The support team called, actually, and was like ‘Hey. We see you’re stuck.' So, it was just really funny to be, like, I have no clue what to do."
Viral video shows driverless Waymo car freezing briefly during trip
The incident happened near Downtown Phoenix, when the self-driving car encountered a small parade, with an emergency vehicle right behind. The video has since gone viral, raising questions about self-driving cars for some people. FOX 10's Steve Nielsen reports.
Within a minute, the car figured out what the officer wanted: for the car to get out of the way of an emergency vehicle.
"It did move enough so the car could pass us, and then once the car passed us, it started to do a multiple point turn," said Romano.
Romano said he's a fan of driverless car, even after the incident.
"Everyone on the video was kind of saying this is why we shouldn't have self-driving cars. Honestly, it made my experience even more a fan of it, because it did the same thing a human would. Maybe not as fast," said Romano.
Romano said he would do a driverless car ride again, and would also recommend it to others.
Officials respond to incident
Officials with Waymo issued a statement on the incident, which reads, in part:
"Understanding other road user gestures is an important area we’ve made a lot of great progress in over the years. From a traffic officer using hand signals to direct vehicles to a construction worker holding a stop sign, we’re using advanced ML models to prepare the Waymo Driver to detect and respond to these situations.
In this particular case, the Waymo vehicle pulled to the side as desired, and then performed a multi-point turn and successfully maneuvered out of the blocked lane within 90 seconds after the interaction with the police officer."
We reached out to officials with the Phoenix Police Department to get their take on the cars response, but they have yet to respond.