Waymo’s autonomous taxis confronted important fines in San Francisco final yr, accumulating a complete of 589 parking tickets and 124 citations for obstructing site visitors.
Waymo’s robotaxis have been working in varied U.S. cities for a number of years and have seen appreciable success. Earlier this yr, the corporate reported providing round 200,000 paid autonomous rides weekly, which is double the quantity from the earlier yr.
Nevertheless, the corporate’s self-driving Jaguar I-Tempo electrical autos encountered challenges, amassing $65,065 in fines solely in San Francisco. The explanations for these fines included obstructing site visitors, violations of road cleansing laws, and parking in prohibited zones.
In line with The Washington Submit, along with the 589 parking tickets in San Francisco, Waymo’s taxis obtained one other 75 tickets in Los Angeles, with $543 in fines nonetheless excellent. On a constructive be aware, the autos have ceased honking at each other.
Sterling Haywood, a seasoned parking management officer in San Francisco, described his efforts to maneuver a Waymo robotaxi parked throughout road cleansing hours. He tried to immediate the car to depart by honking twice, however when it remained stationary, he issued a $96 ticket.
Waymo acknowledged that it persistently pays any citations incurred by its autos and is engaged on upgrades to assist forestall future parking violations. In line with the corporate’s spokesperson, Ethan Teicher, the autonomous Jaguars are designed to detect when they’re blocking site visitors and to acknowledge parking areas. Nevertheless, there are events when they might briefly halt in business loading zones to drop off passengers or briefly park between rides if they’re away from designated Waymo parking tons.
At present, Waymo stands because the main participant within the U.S. robotaxi trade, particularly after Basic Motors’ Cruise enterprise was discontinued final yr. GM’s CEO, Mary Barra, famous {that a} robotaxi enterprise doesn’t align with Basic Motors’ core operations, regardless of the automaker’s important funding of $10 billion within the self-driving taxi firm through the years.
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