Waymo has continued to make headlines for the wrong reasons lately. One of its vehicles hit a child in California, causing minor injuries. Waymo stated that a human driver in the same circumstances would cause a worse accident, but the backlash is still looking quite severe anyway.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched an investigation into the driverless cab company, the California Teamsters Union is calling for the technology to be banned, and now one of the silliest Super Bowl commercials in recent years is looking a little less far-fetched.
Driverless cars are out to get you, apparently
In 2023 and 2024, anti-self-driving vehicle organization “The Dawn Project” ran some undoubtedly expensive Super Bowl ads that simultaneously looked like the most low-budget thing ever committed to film.
The ads saw Teslas performing a number of dangerous maneuvers and ending the innocent fiberglass lives of several mannequins. While The Dawn Project’s intentions were no doubt serious, the comic timing of the individual scenes was pretty ideal. It wouldn’t look out of place on a show like The Office.
Tech entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd is the main force behind The Dawn Project, and he was never that big a fan of Tesla from the looks of things. The ads accompanied calls to boycott the company. However, looking at Tesla’s stock price, they don’t seem to have had too much on that end.
Should this cause a panic?
Driverless cars aren’t perfect, and any new technology should be rolled out with caution. However, the companies building these cars are arguably the most cautious around. Especially in the United States, where lawsuits are a constant fear.
At the time of writing, the company is due to testify at a Congressional hearing on self-driving vehicle regulations. Documents submitted prior to the hearing suggest that when compared to human drivers, Waymo’s vehicles have “been involved in 10 times fewer serious injury or worse crashes.”
With regard to the injured child, Waymo released a statement claiming: “The event occurred when the pedestrian suddenly entered the roadway from behind a tall SUV, moving directly into our vehicle’s path. Our technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle. The Waymo Driver braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made.
To put this in perspective, our peer-reviewed model shows that a fully attentive human driver in this same situation would have made contact with the pedestrian at approximately 14 mph. This significant reduction in impact speed and severity is a demonstration of the material safety benefit of the Waymo Driver.”
However, self-driving is still a contentious subject. Regulation is also likely to be decided at the state level rather than federally. And injured kids aren’t great PR.
