The automotive industry has yet to finish surprising us with the quantity of new technologies it introduces. With Waymo, the American company that now offers robotaxi services in several cities, we’ve witnessed several comical situations over the past few years.
Google offered its first robotic transportation service in 2015
Waymo is responsible for 450,000 trips per week
Service in Miami will start in 2026
One of the latest involved a power outage in San Francisco. It resulted in numerous vehicles stuck at intersections, creating massive traffic jams.
Let’s remember, for those who might not know, that Waymo taxis operate without a driver. They operate in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, as well as in Phoenix, Arizona, Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia. Many other cities will be added, such as Miami, Florida.
In short, the service is popular, and the company is still expanding.
However, it must deal with all sorts of situations that wouldn’t occur if a human were behind the wheel of its vehicles. Like a problem when a door is improperly closed by a user exiting the taxi.
The catch is that if the vehicle detects that one of its doors is improperly closed, it won’t budge an inch. The problem is that the company’s Jaguar I-Paces don’t have an automatic door-closing mechanism, which means the vehicle can remain immobilized for a long time with a partially closed door.
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The company has a solution: $20 US to anyone who can properly close a door, allowing the vehicle to resume its journey.
No, this is not a joke.
According to a Washington Post story, the company offers between $20 US and $24 US to come to the rescue of a vehicle, all through the Honk app that towing companies typically use. The newspaper cites the case of a towing company owner, Cesar Marenco, who mentions having become a regular for this type of situation. He cites an example of a door he recently closed that didn’t lock properly because the seatbelt was hanging outside.
Rather unusual as a side job.
Obviously, the solution to this problem is a vehicle whose doors close automatically in the event of an issue. It’s not the case with the Jaguars used or the Hyundai Ioniq 5s that the company is testing for future use.
Waymo wants to eventually develop its own vehicles in partnership with the Chinese firm Zeekr, which uses vans equipped with automatically closing doors.
In the meantime, there are a few bucks out there if you find yourself in one of the cities where Waymo operates vehicles.
