VIDEO: Driverless Waymo avoids scooter rider who fell into Austin road
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Footage recorded by a Waymo autonomous vehicle driving in central Austin captured the moment a scooter rider stumbled into traffic — and the autonomous vehicle successfully swerved out of their way.
A Waymo vehicle was driving along Guadalupe Street near West 29th Street, slowing down to about 16 miles per hour as it traveled near the scooter. As the scooter rider fell into the lane, Waymo's internal footage captured the autonomous car slowing down to 11 miles per hour as it moved into the left lane, avoiding the scooter.
"We recently began serving riders in Austin, and it’s great to see the safety benefits of the Waymo Driver already playing out for both our riders and other road users," Waymo's Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said in a social media post that included the video.
In a statement to KXAN, Waymo officials said the technology is continually designing its vehicles to "improve safety for all users," and especially those outside of the vehicles.
"In this instance, you can see the vehicle had slowed down and was planning to give them extra space while passing well before they began to stumble," David Margines, Waymo's director of product management, said in an email to KXAN. "We're proud that our behavior prediction and fast reaction time helped that person get home safely that night."
AV operations in Austin
Waymo is the latest in a series of AV companies operating in the Texas capital. Back in September, Waymo announced a partnership with Uber that will offer driverless rideshare services to customers, with that collaboration set to launch in early 2025.
From there, Waymo officials said they plan on growing the fleet “to hundreds of vehicles over time.”
Alongside Waymo, General Motors' Cruise driverless vehicles previously tested in Austin. Cruise paused all driverless operations in fall 2023 after a series of mishaps, public scrutiny and legal action taken against the company following crashes involving the AVs.
Earlier this month, General Motors announced it was shuttering its Cruise robotaxi operations, instead focusing on developing fully autonomous personal vehicles. Other companies testing or deploying AV technology in Austin include Volkswagen's ADMT, AVRide, Motional and Zoox.
How many incidents involving AVs have been reported in Austin?
Since July 2023, the city of Austin has collected data on 75 incidents involving autonomous vehicles. Those figures are collected by the Austin Transportation and Public Works Department's staff from other city departments as well as Austin 3-1-1 service reports.
Incident data shared with KXAN revealed that of those 75 total incidents, the vast majority of them (53) involved Cruise vehicles, now discontinued.
The 75 total incidents are broken down as follows:
- 22 near misses involving AVs
- 15 incidents of AVs blocking traffic
- 15 reported safety concerns involving AVs
- 8 collisions involving AVs
- 8 nuisance complaints related to AVs
- 7 incidents where AVs ignored directions from Austin Police Department
Waymo vehicles were involved in 20 of those incidents:
- 5 incidents about alleged nuisances
- 5 reported safety concerns
- 3 incidents of Waymo vehicles blocking traffic
- 1 near miss involving a Waymo vehicle
- 2 collisions involving a Waymo vehicle
- 4 incidents of a Waymo vehicle ignoring directions given by APD
What safety technology is used in Waymo vehicles?
KXAN took a test ride in a Waymo vehicle in late September. Inside the vehicle, the cars feature an aerial GPS view of it traveling along its route, pulling data from all of the lidar, cameras and radar tracking the vehicle's movements.
“Safety is our absolute primary goal. It is the North Star of what we do,” said Chris Bonelli, Waymo's product communications manager, in September.
Bonelli added that, as of late September, Waymo had tracked more than 22 million fully autonomous miles as part of company operations.