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A Thief’s Getaway Waymo Had 29 Cameras Watching, And Police Still Got Nothing

  • Waymo deleted interior footage of the suspect before police contacted them.
  • Police haven’t been able to identify the suspect using their rider account.
  • Six months after the theft, SF authorities continue searching for the suspect.

A Waymo robotaxi can be fooled into rolling straight into a flooded street, but it turns out the same self-driving cars have no trouble pulling getaway duty for a crime. They are, it seems, alarmingly good at helping criminals disappear.

Earlier this year, an unidentified suspect walked into a Hot 8 Yoga studio in San Francisco and left in a hurry with an armful of pricey activewear. He had arrived by Waymo and used the same car to escape, dumping the loot into the trunk of the autonomous I-Pace before riding off.

Watch: Dozens Of Empty Waymo Robotaxis Keep Circling An Atlanta Cul-De-Sac For Hours

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, local authorities took their time looking into the theft. A search warrant landed on Waymo in April, ordering the company to hand over everything it knew about the account behind the ride, along with video from inside and outside the car to help identify the thief.

However, by the time the search warrant was filed in April, Waymo had already wiped the cabin footage. The company doesn’t publicly say how long it keeps video, and on top of that, its exterior cameras always blur faces for privacy reasons. So despite each robotaxi packing a small arsenal of high-definition cameras, none of them helped track down the thief.

That’s a tough pill to swallow when you consider the hardware involved. According to Waymo’s website, its latest Jaguars feature 29 cameras that provide a full 360-degree view of their surroundings. The user’s account information didn’t lead police to a suspect either, perhaps because whoever booked the ride used stolen credentials or a burner phone.

All For Some Men’s Shorts

 A Thief’s Getaway Waymo Had 29 Cameras Watching, And Police Still Got Nothing

The studio manager of Hot 8 Yoga says footage from outside the location shows the Waymo dropping off the individual and waiting for him to return with the stolen loot. Although he only made off with a bunch of men’s shorts, it’s certainly possible this case might encourage other criminals to escape in robotaxis.

Los Angeles saw a version of this last year, when someone bolted from a grocery store theft in a Waymo. That one ended differently. Police caught up with the robotaxi, forced it to the side of the road, and arrested the suspect.

 A Thief’s Getaway Waymo Had 29 Cameras Watching, And Police Still Got Nothing

Waymo’s Self-Driving Cars Can’t Stop Diving Into Floods, So It Paused 5 Cities

  • Waymo has suspended robotaxi service across five major US cities this week.
  • The pause follows a recent recall covering nearly 3,800 autonomous vehicles.
  • One Waymo sat stranded in Atlanta floodwaters until a human stepped in.

For a company built on the premise that machines see the road better than humans do, getting repeatedly outsmarted by puddles is not a great look. The Alphabet-owned firm has suspended operations in five U.S. cities while it works out why its robotaxis keep mistaking flooded streets for drivable ones.

Read: Waymo Recalls Thousands Of Robotaxis After One Got Washed Away In A Flood

The flooded-road problem first surfaced earlier this month, when a Waymo robotaxi drove onto a submerged road in San Antonio, Texas, on April 20 and was swept into a creek. No one was on board, which is the only saving grace. The incident pushed Waymo to recall close to 3,800 robotaxis to fix how they handle these conditions.

The Atlanta Incident

While the company continues working on a fix, another one of its vehicles got stranded in floodwaters after heavy rain in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this week. 10News reports the EV was stuck for roughly an hour before the floodwaters receded, at which point a human driver was able to jump behind the wheel.

Following the Texas incident, Waymo paused service in San Antonio, and the suspension now extends to Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston, partly in response to the severe weather sweeping across Texas this week.

Speaking with TechCrunch, Waymo says it uses National Weather Service alerts to prepare its vehicles for difficult weather conditions. However, in the case of the flash flood in Atlanta, it says a storm produced so much rainfall in such a short period that the robotaxi got stuck before any alert was issued.

As part of the recall issued last week, Waymo said it was rolling out operational restrictions in areas with an elevated risk of flooded, higher-speed roads, and added that work on a “final remedy” is still underway.

 Waymo’s Self-Driving Cars Can’t Stop Diving Into Floods, So It Paused 5 Cities

Waymo’s Robotaxi Made It To San Jose, His Luggage Made It To San Francisco

  • The tech giant initially said it wouldn’t pay to ship the rider’s luggage back.
  • Waymo offered Di Jin two free rides to pick up his luggage from a depot.
  • As it turns out, there are some advantages to using human-driven taxis.

Taking a trip in one of Waymo’s robotaxis should be a smooth and stress-free experience, particularly since there’s no pressure to have an awkward conversation with a driver. However, for one Waymo user in California, taking a robotaxi to the airport left him without luggage for a business trip.

In late April, Di Jin took his first ride in one of Waymo’s robotaxis, traveling from Sunnyvale to San Jose Mineta Airport. The self-driving Jaguar I-Pace took him to the airport without issues, but when Jin got out of the car and attempted to open the trunk to get his luggage, the button did nothing. Moments later, the vehicle drove off, still carrying his luggage.

Read: Waymo’s Robotaxis Sometimes Receive Guidance By Some Guy In The Philippines

Speaking with NBC, Jin said he frantically contacted Waymo customer service but was told the robotaxi couldn’t be turned around and was heading to the depot. He was then forced to board his flight without any of his luggage.

The Californian man was informed later in the day that Waymo had retrieved his luggage at the depot. The only problem is that the depot is in San Francisco, and the company refused to pay shipping costs to get it back to Jin. If Jin didn’t want to pay for shipping, Waymo offered him two free rides to and from the depot to pick up his luggage.

Waymo Finally Steps Up

However, time is money, and Jin didn’t like the idea of wasting two hours getting his luggage. Waymo ultimately relented, confirming that it would pay to deliver his luggage after all.

Waymo notes that riders can open the trunk of one of its vehicles by pressing the physical trunk release button on the outside of the vehicle, or by tapping the ‘open trunk’ button in the Waymo app. For this rider, the trunk release apparently didn’t work, and with no human driver behind the wheel, he had no way of immediately notifying the car that he couldn’t retrieve his luggage. Perhaps human-operated taxis aren’t so bad after all.

 Waymo’s Robotaxi Made It To San Jose, His Luggage Made It To San Francisco
Photos Waymo

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