Waymo Says Its Vehicles Are Certified For Emergency Vehicle Collision Protection

Waymo says its self-driving cars are guaranteed to respond appropriately to first responders and emergency vehicles, such as fire trucks. The company’s autonomous vehicles are currently live for paying customers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, with deliveries to Miami coming soon.

Self-driving cars have made headlines over the years for exhibiting bewildering behavior at times when they don’t know how to react to situations that would otherwise be normal to a human. It may seem easy to drive, but people process a huge amount of information as they do so, including understanding how other drivers around them may be behaving. Despite our faults, humans are very good at walking the streets in the most perfect synchronicity.

The computer needs to be taught all of this information manually, and funny situations can arise when they are not trained, such as when a Cruise vehicle escapes from the police after being pulled over for not having its lights on at night. The car itself did not know it needed to remain stationary while the officer contacted Cruise support.

Waymo in a blog post today says that its measures to identify and respond to such situations have received independent certification from an organization called TÜV SÜD, the rightful leader in safety testing and certification. Among other things, Waymo says its vehicles are certified for advanced detection of emergency vehicles and sirens, and are able to respond to hand signals and instructions from first responders or police officers handling active accident scenes.

While the strange behavior of autonomous vehicles may not be dangerous at times, it can also cause serious problems, such as when another Cruise vehicle blocked an ambulance, stopping an accident victim from getting to the hospital. People know when they see an ambulance behind them that they have to pass. Cars need training for this.

Cruise was shut down this week by owner General Motors, leaving Waymo and Tesla as the two dominant US self-driving companies. Tesla’s Elon Musk said the company will begin fielding a self-driving “robocab” next year, but its vehicles rely on cameras and artificial intelligence instead of the sophisticated Lidar sensors used by Waymo.

Tesla has been the subject of an NHTSA investigation after its cars driving in Autopilot mode rammed into emergency vehicles and police cars parked on the street with their headlights on, possibly confusing the cars’ cameras or confusing the self-driving system about what was going on. The company has been criticized for quickly deploying its technology in autonomous passenger cars, although it opposes using its customers as guinea pigs as the best way to get data for training and developing the system. And thanks to Musk, it looks like President-elect Trump may repeal the law requiring the company to report accidents that occur when self-driving mode is on.

Waymo has released its vehicles with great caution, and for good reason. The company has been the subject of some backlash, and strong reviews from riders—Waymo recently matched Lyft for market share in San Francisco. Cruise, before it was shut down completely, was banned from providing benefits to our customers after it misled regulators about the circumstances surrounding one of its vehicles dragging a woman 20 meters down the pavement.