Jakarta, huutoanland Indonesia
—
A number of autonomous taxis
Waymo
broke down in the middle of the road due to a power outage that hit a third of San Francisco,
United States
, on Saturday, (20/12).The strike of the driverless vehicle also triggered traffic jams in various parts of the city.
Videos circulating on social media show five autonomous taxi units not moving in the middle of a busy road, piled up and blocking other drivers.Without traffic lights to direct them, these cars were completely lost.
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“Someone will burn this thing if it is not moved immediately,” a passerby is quoted as saying in the video
Futurism
, Monday (22/12).
One San Francisco resident, Matt Schoolfield, said he saw at least three Waymo autonomous vehicles stopped in traffic.
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The company immediately responded to this condition, and stated that this was the result of an electricity disturbance that occurred in San Francisco.The company confirmed that this autonomous taxi service will resume operations on Sunday (21/12).
“Yesterday’s power outage was a widespread event that caused gridlock throughout San Francisco, with malfunctioning traffic lights and disruption to public transportation,” Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion said.
CNBC
.
“While such utility infrastructure failures are significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adapts to traffic flow during such events,” he added.
Philon explained Waymo is designed to treat the malfunctioning signal as a four-way intersection.According to him, the large scale of the disturbance caused vehicles to remain stopped longer than usual to ensure the condition of the intersection.
According to him, Waymo has coordinated with San Francisco city officials, and proactively stopped its service starting Saturday night and until Sunday morning.
“The majority of active trips are successfully completed before the vehicle is safely returned to the depot or parked at the curb,” he said.
Incidents like this can worsen the image of Waymo and autonomous taxis in the eyes of the public.Previously, this autonomous taxi had hit and killed a pet cat in a San Francisco grocery store, sparking public outrage.
Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also commented on the incident.He confirmed that his autonomous taxi, Robotaxi, was not involved in this incident.
“Tesla’s robotaxi is not affected by the power outage in San Francisco,” Musk said via his X account.
Even so, there is no certainty that this claim will reduce public doubts about autonomous transportation, considering that previously Tesla’s autonomous taxis have also been involved in various disturbances and fatal accidents.
(iqb/dmi)
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