NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Waymo temporarily suspended its driverless car service in Nashville, Atlanta and Texas after one of its vehicles became stranded in floodwaters in Atlanta on Wednesday. Video shows the self-driving car getting stuck in high water after driving through a flash flood.
Julie Moore tells WSMV4 that she took a Waymo ride for the first time recently and was a bit apprehensive.
“It felt a little unhinged getting in it, but I was a fan, but now that I saw the flooding, I don’t know,” said Moore.
“I was skeptical of it because I’ve seen the things where you get locked in it,” Courtney Weyers said.
Since Waymo launched in Nashville in April, there have been some issues along the way. The driverless vehicles have traveled on the wrong side of the road, had difficulty navigating through construction zones and stalled in heavy traffic. The new video of the car surrounded in rising flood waters brings new concerns.
“The Waymo didn’t know how to handle the flooding, like the technology isn’t built for that,” Moore said.
Derek Gloudemans, a research scientist for Vanderbilt University, said the car getting stuck in a flood is not surprising. He said AI and autonomous vehicles often struggle as they learn how to react in new scenarios, known as the long-tail problem.
Gloudemans says as the service expands, more issues may occur.
“Waymo has been deployed in a limited number of cities. All cities have their own challenges. It seems like Waymo is ramping up the difficulty of things they’re willing to take on. Obviously, we get a lot of rain here in Tennessee and the further north they go they’ll have to deal with feet of snow on the roadway and other challenges,” Gloudemans said.
Gloudemans said the vehicles are safe under normal conditions and that safety should improve over time as the technology advances.
Even with the latest mishap, Weyers says she will still give the autonomous car a chance.
“I would try it skeptically, but I would try it,” she said.
However, that ride will have to wait. The Waymo app shows the service is paused in Nashville.
Waymo issued a statement to the Associated Press stating, “The company paused service out of an abundance of caution for the forecasted severe weather.”
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