If you plan to travel to the United States in the coming months, you might be tempted to try a Waymo robotaxi. However, not without provocation, before you decide, the following video might make your head spin. Somewhere across the Atlantic, a Waymo robotaxi, an autonomous electric Jaguar I-Pace, completed 37 laps of a roundabout. This was captured on video. Since then, this video has not only gone around the roundabout but also around the web.
Increasingly common in the United States, particularly in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Waymo robotaxis, or autonomous electric cars for passenger transport, are part of the “American urban landscape.” However, a few days ago, a bug resulted in an unusual sequence. A 100% electric Jaguar I-Pace SUV went around and around a roundabout, this time 37 times. Watch the video of the Waymo robotaxi below by clicking on “Play.”
Both unusual and funny, the video of the “unofficial World Record” of the Waymo robotaxi raises some security questions. Why did the electronic and computer intelligence related to the Waymo technology not intervene to stop the Jaguar I-Pace? Why did the connected Waymo services not send an alert to a remote supervision platform? 37 laps is a lot. Fortunately, no occupants were in the Jaguar I-Pace at the time of this incident.
Finally, in a few weeks, Waymo robotaxis will be exported to Japan, where they will be tested, specifically in Tokyo. Since Japan’s capital is known for being overcrowded, with crowded sidewalks and congested streets, let’s hope that the type of incident presented in this article does not happen there. It could be very dangerous.
