Tech boosters might love them, but Waymo’s self-driving cars aren’t exactly currying favor with John Q Public. In the past few months, the company’s robotaxis have blocked first responders, drained government resources, and killed beloved pets. It might be a different story if they were publicly owned and operated, but Waymo — a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet — is a for-profit entity, giving the whole operation an insidious optics problem.
Doug Fulop, a tech industry worker in the San Francisco bay area, is one of Waymo’s aforementioned boosters. In January, he met one of the company’s detractors head-on — through the windshield of one of the robotaxis.
According to the New York Times, Fulop and two passengers were inside a Waymo one January night when they were beset by an irate protestor, who proceeded to punch the robotaxi’s windows and berate the riders with death threats for six minutes.
Waymo cabs are programmed to stop dead in their tracks if a human being is detected in close proximity — resulting in agonizing gridlock if the cars wind up in situations with a lot of nearby foot traffic. It’s a baked in safety mechanism that anti-Waymo protestors have been keen to take advantage of.
“We felt helpless,” Fulop told the newspaper. “If he had kept hammering on one window instead of alternating, I’m sure he would have eventually broken through.”
According to Fulop’s telling, the man became distracted after a crowd formed to cheer on his tirade. Police and Waymo customer service had been called, neither of which were much help in the moment. Still, the supportive crowd managed to snare the attention of the lone protestor, giving the Waymo enough room to roll on.
For his part, Fulop said he avoided hailing any Waymos for some time after the incident, and that he’ll avoid the vehicles at night until the company updates its pedestrian safety policy.
“As passengers, we deserve more safety than that if someone is trying to attack us,” the tech worker told the NYT. “This can’t be the policy to be trapped there.”
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