Self-driving car companies have made a killing convincing the public that self-driving cars are safer than human drivers. On the surface, it makes sense: humans are erratic, emotional creatures who often struggle to pay attention to the road. Autonomous vehicles, with the precision of machines, would surely be predictable, cautious, and consistent — and therefore safer, right?
As New York Streetsblog points out, that’s not necessarily the case. One glaring issue that’s gradually coming into focus: autonomous vehicles are only as safe as their owners program them to be, an issue highlighted by the growing number of incidents involving autonomous vehicles verging into bike lanes.
Consider Waymo’s track record in San Francisco, where Waymo faces mounting scrutiny over its bike lane policy. As Streetsblog notes, Waymo vehicles routinely pull into the city’s bike lanes both to pick up and drop off passengers — a phenomenon which is well documented on social media.
Two months ago, for example, one Redditor posted pictures of his Waymo planted smack in the middle of a San Francisco bike lane. Another image, shared a few months earlier by a cyclist, shows a Waymo in Austin picking up a passenger from within the shoulder bike path — though in this case, the autonomous vehicle was parked partially in the roadway as well.
Last June, a group called Bay Area Bicycle Law filed a lawsuit against Waymo and its parent company, Alphabet (Google) alleging that two separate Waymo vehicles converged into a bike lane at the same time, causing a woman to crash.
According to the lawsuit, cyclist Jenifer Hanke was doored while riding in a designated bike lane as passengers were exiting a Waymo that had obstructed her path. She was then thrown into another Waymo, which was parked directly in far side of the bike path.
“People always point out that unlike human driven cars, the AVs stop at lights and obey the speed limit. However, they are really only as good and effective and safe as they are programmed to be,” executive director of the San Francisco Bike Coalition Christopher White told Streetsblog. “Waymos pull over into bike lanes all the time for pickups and drop-offs and that’s neither legal nor safe but the companies say that is a normal practice and that’s what customers expect.”
White also made the contentious allegation that Waymo told safe street advocates that bike lane-awareness is “too high a bar,” because customers want to be dropped off in them.
For its part, Waymo didn’t respond to a request for comment on White’s allegations or the bike lane phenomenon overall. Given that the company is quick to comment when it has a chance to bolster their safety record, its silence here speaks volumes.
More on self-driving cars: Waymo Says It Has Nothing to Say After Its Self-Driving Taxi Blocked an Ambulance Responding to a Mass Shooting
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