San Francisco is thought for its fog. The thick, low-hanging water vapor could make visibility tough, particularly behind the wheel. Now, evidently driverless automobiles are operating into the identical downside — with 5 vehicles from Waymo’s fleet waylaid by fog this morning.
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5 Waymo autonomous automobiles gave up on traversing the San Francisco fog simply earlier than 6:00 am this morning, in keeping with the San Francisco Chronicle, deciding to drag over on the facet of a residential avenue till circumstances improved. Sadly, the 5 automobiles had been clustered collectively, forming a roadblock that made a residential avenue impassable till the fog cleared.
Different drivers, unaware of the automotives’ inhuman operation, tried in useless to get the crossovers to maneuver. They flashed their headlights and tried to suit previous the stopped Waymo automobiles, in a fashion that sounds very West Coast. A New Yorker would have stood nonetheless and simply laid on the horn for 2, probably three hours, or pushed by somebody’s yard to get round.
The Waymo vehicles reportedly resumed regular operation inside a matter of minutes, however the disruption remained an inconvenience for San Francisco residents. The fog, a situation to which all SF natives are accustomed, had now halted their morning commutes in a approach they couldn’t management — a fleet of robots, unaccustomed to the lowered visibility, had determined the climate was too unhealthy.
The Waymo stoppage is the most recent story of automated automobile testing interrupting the traditional each day lifetime of drivers. In fact, an AV received’t know the right way to navigate fog with out ever experiencing it, but it surely looks like the form of testing finest achieved on a closed course — not slim facet streets.