TIL there's a way for cops to manually take over a Waymo and drive them...?
"As her motorcade arrived at the Fairmont San Francisco, an autonomous Waymo got stuck making a turn. A San Francisco police officer had to manually drive the vehicle out of the way."
This is likely Vice President Kamala Harris' last visit to San Francisco before election day, but one of those "only in San Francisco" moments happened. As her motorcade arrived at the Fairmont San Fr...
Waymo & Cruise added it ~mid 2023 after too many snafus in San Francisco. Their remote ops disengages the robotics and then a first responder can drive the vehicle or, in the case of the Cruise robot atop a woman, use jaws of life to lift the robot off her. A FUBARed robot isn't safe til disengaged.
Do they just mean commandeering the vehicle?
The Waymo Jaguars (which is what's in the photo) still have a steering wheel and pedals.
Not a good sign…”I was in pursuit when the subject was struck by a passing Waymo.
Can any of us do this?
Not complicated. Officer talks to assistance and they can see "hey a cop needs to move this car. Activate manual mode."
I suppose there'd have to be. Be interested in finding out what activates cop mode.
I think that means literally getting into the driver’s seat?
Most likely Waymo had to agree to a number of requirements around public safety, including ability for LEOs to take control. No idea on mechanism tho.