Waymo’s self driving taxis that once waited patiently at every stop sign are now cutting through traffic like seasoned cab drivers, marking a dramatic shift in how autonomous vehicles navigate urban roads.
Two white Jaguar sedans weaved through a two-lane tunnel last September, switching lanes together in synchronized moves. Both were Waymo vehicles, the self-driving cars once famous for being overly careful on the road.
Sophia Yen, who runs a startup and was driving behind them, couldn’t believe what she saw. “I had never seen anyone switch lanes in that tunnel,” she told Wall Street Journal. “It’s driving more like a taxi driver—an aggressive, New York taxi driver.”
The change marks a big departure from how these cars used to operate. For years, Waymo vehicles were the most courteous drivers around San Francisco. Meet one at a stop sign and it would always wait for you to go first. The robot cars are now looking out for themselves first. They’re bending some traffic rules, showing less patience with people crossing streets, and acting on the belief that being too nice doesn’t work in city traffic.
Waymo’s traffic violations and safety incidents emerge
Police in San Bruno, California stopped a Waymo in September after watching it make an illegal U-turn. The same month, one of the vehicles struck and killed a well-known cat in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood. On a recent Thursday, a Waymo at a four-way stop accelerated alongside another car instead of waiting its turn. Moments later, it changed lanes without signaling.
A Waymo vehicle drove dangerously close to a police felony stop in downtown Los Angeles early one Sunday morning following a vehicle chase, creating a tense moment captured on video.
The driverless car made a left turn and passed within feet of a white truck that police had pulled over at the corner. Several police cruisers had their lights flashing, and the suspected driver was face down on the street.
The Los Angeles Police Department said the incident happened around 3:40 a.m. at Broadway and First Street, outside Times Mirror Square and downtown’s federal courthouse.
The department said the vehicle’s closeness and failure to avoid the traffic stop didn’t change how officers handled the situation. Police temporarily shut down the intersection afterward, which is standard procedure.
The police department’s Traffic Coordination Division develops protocols for driverless vehicles. It wasn’t clear if they would investigate. The division stays in regular contact with Waymo as the technology develops.
Jennifer Jeffries, who’s 54 and lives in Pacific Heights, has spent almost 3,000 minutes riding in Waymo cars since May 2024. She used to avoid them for downtown trips because they couldn’t handle tight situations. Once she sat stuck for several minutes while a Waymo waited behind a double-parked car being used for furniture delivery.
Now she has no concerns about taking them anywhere and thinks they handle as well as human rideshare drivers, possibly better.
“They will go around a car or get closer to a car than a human driver would,” Jeffries said. “Sometimes I’ll be in the back seat and I’ll be like, ‘Ooh that was really close.'”
She’s noticed one problem though. Like some rideshare drivers, they sometimes stop across the street from the pickup address, “which I don’t appreciate,” she said.
Waymo defends “confidently assertive” strategy
The company has been working to make its vehicles “confidently assertive,” according to Chris Ludwick, a senior director at Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. “That was really necessary for us to actually scale this up in San Francisco, especially because of how busy it gets.”
Ludwick explained that when the cars are too passive, they cause problems. Regular software updates keep them from becoming troublesome or causing disorder.
While Ludwick wouldn’t discuss specific rule violations, he said the vehicles make practical choices that require balancing different priorities.
“The driver is designed to respect the rules of the road,” Ludwick said. “However, sometimes this is a nuanced topic and road rules can even conflict with each other.”
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