I saw that movie!
Posted on 12/25/2025 3:28:30 PM PST by xxqqzz
Waymo's fleet of autonomous robotaxis can navigate city streets and compete with human taxi drivers, but they become stranded when a passenger leaves a door ajar -- prompting the company to pay tow truck operators around $20 to $24 through an app called Honk just to push a door shut. The owner of a towing company in Inglewood, California, completes up to three such jobs a week for Waymo, sometimes freeing vehicles by removing seat belts caught in doors. Another Los Angeles tow operator said locating stuck robotaxis can take 10 minutes to an hour because the precise location isn't always provided, forcing workers to search on foot through narrow streets too narrow for flatbed rigs.
Tow operators also retrieve Waymos that run out of battery before reaching charging stations, earning $60 to $80 per tow -- rates that aren't always profitable after factoring in fuel and labor. During a San Francisco power outage last weekend, multiple operators received a flurry of retrieval requests as robotaxis blocked intersections across the city. One San Francisco tow company manager declined because Waymo's offered rate fell below his standard $250 flatbed fee.
Waymo said in a blog post that the outage caused a "backlog" in requests to remote human workers who help vehicles navigate defunct traffic signals. San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood called for a hearing into Waymo's operations, saying the traffic disruptions were "dangerous and unacceptable." A retired Carnegie Mellon engineering professor who studied autonomous vehicles for nearly 30 years said paying humans to close doors and retrieve stalled cars is expensive and will need to be minimized as Waymo scales up. The company is testing next-generation Zeekr vehicles in San Francisco that feature automatic sliding doors.
(Excerpt) Read more at tech.slashdot.org ...
Waymo has been involved in a total of 5 accidents with “serious” injuries, including 1 fatality. Humans were at fault for all of them.
https://www.google.com/search?q=waymo+fatal+accidents
LOL...no precise GPS coordinates and the tow truck driver has to hoof it around the neighborhood to find the disabled car? How can a self-driving vehicle that knows where it is to the inch not provide precise GPS coordinates?
I saw that movie!
I’m guessing it was originally a safety feature...
Good one.
I have been asked to desist in telling more jokes by the Commission For Classiness in Humor. Busybodies.
So, I’ll say good night.
It should have been programmed with a Spanish accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNNCZGqP4uQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2lJhSULIQ4
Ha. I deserved that.
I recall about 20-25 years ago taking taxis in Tokyo (with human drivers) and as you walked up to it the door would automatically open, then close after you got in. This is easy, sending a person out to do it is stupid.
“It should have been programmed with a Spanish accent.”
The New York Waymo should smell bad and only speak Arabic...
I would never get in a driverless vehicle and never own one. It’s the height of laziness. I’d never own an EV and I’m not a fan of 90% of the technology BS in vehicles either.
I like driving, V8 HP and performance exhaust in cars, lift kits on trucks and jeeps, open exhaust on boats and loud Harleys and I like them clean and shiney inside and out. T
Different strokes as they say.
New revenue stream for towing companies. Hire a guy to order a Waymo, rack up a low fare, exit the vehicle, and respond from 2 feet away when the request for service goes out.
Agreed. Waymo needs a retrofit of the doors.
Funny. I shouldn’t laugh but I did. A lot.
Old Mark Russell joke.
“Don’t try to tell me this isn’t still the Land of Opportunity. Yesterday a man was in his native Iraq, can’t speak a word of English. Today he is your cab driver in Manhattan.”
Mark Russell (1932-2023) RIP.
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