Waymo has issued a non-apology after one of its trial robotaxis reportedly repeatedly woke up residents in a London street by reversing loudly after finding itself blocked by a gate.
The BBC reports:
A driverless taxi company has apologised after one of its cars repeatedly reversed out of an east London cul-de-sac in the early hours, making a loud noise.
Residents of Elder Street in Spitalfields said a Waymo car had been waking everyone up with a “ridiculous mixture of a reversing noise and siren sound” at about 04:00 BST most days last week.
The problem appears to be the robotaxi is too stupid to realise that it cannot get out of the street going forward. According to the BBC report, the safety driver told residents that he just had to let the car do what it wanted. It said:
US firm Waymo, which plans to be operating a robo-taxi service in London by September, apologised “sincerely for any disruption caused”.
Apologising for “any disruption caused” is a refusal to admit that disruption has actually been caused – presumably on lawyers’ advice – and is meaningless.
Meanwhile, Brent Green Party has launched a petition calling on London mayor Sadiq Khan to:
Implement an immediate moratorium on the expansion of the Waymo pilot until a transparent safety audit is completed.
Publish a full log of all safety breaches, “near misses”, and traffic violations involving autonomous vehicles in London to date.
It follows the incident last month in Harlesden where a Waymo vehicle drove through a police cordon at a crime scene.
The Green Party has criticised the (still) Labour-led Brent Council for backing Waymo, which located a depot in the borough.
The picture shows Cllr Krupa Sheth, cabinet member for public realm and enforcement and council leader Muhammed Butt.
Transport Insights 
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