Anybody who has ever requested a stranger in a espresso store to look at their laptop computer is aware of unattended tech makes an attractive goal for thieves. Waymo acquired one more reminder of this truth this week after a person in downtown LA tried to take over considered one of its driverless vehicles.
The incident occurred within the early morning hours of January 2. Police arrived on scene to discover a man sitting within the driver’s seat of on of Waymo’s Jaguar I-Tempo SUVs, CBS Los Angeles reviews:
A person, who authorities say was probably below the affect, was within the driver’s seat of considered one of Waymo’s absolutely electrical Jaguar I-PACEs when officers arrived to the scene close to South Hill Road and Fifth Road round 12:30 a.m., based on the Los Angeles Police Division. Footage exhibits officers pulling him out of the motive force’s seat, the place nobody is often sitting within the self-driving vehicles.
The unidentified man was arrested and brought into custody after authorities pulled him out of the automobile. Waymo lately launched its driverless automobile service in Los Angeles in November 2024. Within the two months the service has been on-line, the corporate advised CBS that there have “solely been a handful of cases” out of 5 million or so rides the place somebody tried to steal considered one of its automobiles. As this current thief doubtless discovered, even should you do handle to make it into the entrance seat of a Waymo, you’re not going to get very far. In an announcement to CBS, the corporate defined the way it’s unimaginable for unauthorized drivers to do something with one of many automobiles.
Waymo automobiles are designed in order that unauthorized people can not disengage the automated driving system and manually function the automobiles,” Waymo mentioned within the assertion. “When any unauthorized particular person sits within the driver’s seat, Waymo’s Rider Help workforce can ask them to depart the automobile and finish the trip. In the event that they don’t adjust to instructions to depart the automobile, Rider Help coordinates with our Emergency Response Crew, which works with regulation enforcement to reply.
The corporate mentioned the system that operates its automobiles is named the “Waymo driver” and consists of its AI self-driving tech, the number of sensors and cameras on the automobile and its software program. Waymo says this tech can be able to figuring out when a rider could also be drunk or if “an individual inside is smoking or not carrying their seatbelt.”
The LAPD says in March 2024, a person tried to steal one other Waymo driverless automobile in downtown Los Angeles. Police say the person tried to place the automobile into drive however couldn’t determine the way to work the controls. A Waymo rep used the in-car communication system to try to get the person to depart. When he didn’t, that’s when police had been contacted and he was arrested.
Whereas Waymo’s fundamental competitor, GM backed Cruise was lately shut down, it doesn’t appear as if Cruise had many issues with theft. Other than embarrassing glitches, evidently human drivers would usually hit the driverless vehicles after which flee the scene when nobody was noticed behind the wheel.