- Police in Phoenix pulled over a Waymo robotaxi after it temporarily drove into an oncoming lane of traffic.
- Bodycam footage from the scene shows the officer approaching the Jag and finding nobody at the wheel.
- The cop was unable to write a ticket because there was no human driver present.
The threat of us receiving a fine or having our license taken away is one of the main reasons public roads aren’t just one huge destruction derby free-for-all. But what happens when cops spot an offence being committed and there’s no driver to ticket? That’s the situation one officer found himself in after stopping a suicidal Waymo robotaxi in Phoenix, AZ.
According to Phoneix PD, the Jaguar I-Pace autonomous cab was seen last month driving into an oncoming lane of traffic – the kind of dangerous move that would be sure to result any human driver receiving the full lights and siren package.
Related: Waymo’s Self-Driving Cars Recalled To Teach Them How To Avoid Utility Poles
Bodycam footage from the scene shows the cop exiting his patrol car and approaching the Jag to find, as he had already anticipated, that there was nobody behind the wheel. But the cab’s driver window still rolls down as if there was, and the cop is then able to speak to a Waymo driver support operative via the car’s onboard telecoms tech.
“So your car here drove into oncoming lanes of traffic,” the officer explains to the Waymo staffer, who then says he’ll check it right out on his computer system.
We don’t see footage of the incident leading up to the stop, but when a curious passer-by wanders over to see what’s happening, the cop explains that the Waymo drove into oncoming traffic at a construction zone and then took off through an intersection when hit lit his cruiser up to initiate a stop.
According to police dispatch records seen by AZCentral, the stop was concluded with no further action taken, the officer writing “unable to issue citation to computer.”
Waymo Responds, But Concerns Linger
Waymo first refused to discuss the incident when approached by AZCentral, but when the website said it would cover the story anyway, the cab firm relented, claiming that the Jag had encountered “encountered inconsistent construction signage” and “was blocked from navigating back into the correct lane” for around 30 seconds. AZC’s report also contains footage from a separate episode of terrible Waymo driving in Pheonix, where an I-Pace is seen weaving across the road like a drunk driver. You can check out that video below.
Legal Loopholes and the Need for Change
Current traffic laws designed around human drivers don’t allow for autonomous cars or cabs to receive tickets, but it seems wrong to us that they can drive dangerously and walk away from something that would have landed the rest of us in hot water. Surely there should be some kind of system in place to punish the firms responsible for the driverless tech?
Drop a comment below and let us know what you think.
