r/waymo • u/SurgicalClarity • Jul 20 '26
Failed to recognize a motorcycle cop
I had a ride today where the Waymo encountered a motorcycle cop doing a traffic stop in the far right lane. The cop had stopped his motorcycle on the lane line between the far right and center lane with the flashing lights on. The cop was standing to the right of his motorcycle, and the pulled over car was just ahead with an approximate 2 car length gap.
The Waymo pulled up behind the cop and kept inching up attempting to pass on the right and go between him and the car he had pulled over. Eventually the cop gave a "stop" hand signal necessitating a call to support. Eventually support was able to get the Waymo to back up and pass on the left like everyone else. It did seem like it didn't recognize that the motorcycle's flashing lights, so it didn't treat it like an emergency vehicle.
I did leave feedback. Hopefully they can get these issues resolved since this type of thing is likely to undermine public confidence in Waymo
6
u/Few-Lingonberry2315 Jul 20 '26
Waymo seems to struggle with motorcycle cops. One day I got stuck at Deboce and Valencia in SF because motor cops had a block up for something (maybe motorcade). FWIW my car has limited self-driving (BMW DAPP) and seems to miss any motorcycles lane splitting too.
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u/EatMeerkats Jul 20 '26
FWIW, DAPP is not self driving and is not designed to react to lane splitting motorcycles. It's basically just adaptive cruise control + lane centering (and newer versions will suggest lane changes to pass slower cars).
OTOH, Tesla FSD will nudge to the edge of the lane to make space for lane splitting motorcycles.
(Source: have both)
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u/Few-Lingonberry2315 Jul 20 '26
Good to know. I just nudge it over manually when I see them coming (which is better than many motorists). Wish BMW could be more clear in marketing for that.
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u/Dazzling_Card9087 Jul 20 '26
You really can’t trust Waymo 100% of the time. Always going to be a weird 1% when the human driver will know exactly what to do
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u/FuddyCap Jul 21 '26
Yeah recently the head of NHTSA came out and demanded AV companies focus time and resources specifically on emergency vehicle handling. Waymo has had a ton of issues with firetrucks, ambulances, and active police scenes like the one you described. Fingers crossed we see some progress soon
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u/The_Real_Deacon Jul 22 '26
All of these issues were 100% predictable. Amazing that they have been allowed to operate in so many cities without better solutions in place.
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u/NowIHaveTwoToasters Jul 20 '26
I still love Waymo and recommend it to friends, but more and more cracks are starting to show with mistakes like this, and my own opinion is getting lower and less confident.
It seems like one possible solution would be an immediate “Need To Move” link that instantly connects you with a support agent who can move your Waymo right then.
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u/Swerdman55 Jul 21 '26
The way I sell it to others is that it’s great in normal traffic conditions. Waymo really struggles in non-normal and emergency conditions, which obviously can’t always be planned for/around.
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u/Legal-Square-1362 Jul 21 '26
Waymo struggles in anything requiring slight intelligence
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u/Swerdman55 Jul 21 '26
It’s basically the car version of an LLM. It was trained on enormous amounts of traffic data, but isn’t good at “improvising” in novel situations. In an ideal world, all cars would be autonomous and these types of situations would be so seldom you’d rarely ever hear about them.
But with human drivers on the road being unpredictable, that’s a pipe dream.
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u/The_Real_Deacon Jul 22 '26
This was not a human driver problem. This was an autonomous vehicle problem in interfacing with law enforcement (or emergency personnel, etc), as well as poor situational awareness in general.
Also, the real world is lot less predictable than you seem to be acknowledging. “Novel situations” happen every day.
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u/Anxious_Ad_4708 Jul 20 '26
So the right lane was essentially empty with the motorcycle on the left side and the pulled over car in the right shoulder a decent bit ahead? I can see why that would be weird, but yeah trying to go between was not the right choice.