Self-Driving Cars Block Road After Getting Confused By Fog

A group of Waymo autonomous taxis blocked a residential road in San Francisco recently due to heavy fog that apparently confused the vehicles' self-driving system. The cars in question were all heavily-modified examples of the Jaguar I-Pace.

Per Reuters, Waymo, another subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet, responded to the embarrassing situation. "We have software updates planned to improve our fog and parking performance to address such situations in the future," a statement said.

The vehicles rely on a technically complicated and advanced self-driving system with LiDAR sensors, cameras, and radar to navigate the roads successfully. Waymo, which recently announced the retirement of its Chrysler Pacific Hybrid fleet, clearly has some work to do because dense fog is a regular occurrence, especially in the Bay Area.

No injuries or damage were reported, but this proves the technology still has a ways to go before it can become a regular thing throughout the country. The fog somehow confused the self-driving equipment, and the system determined it was unsafe to continue driving.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, other motorists quickly got confused by the robotaxis' sudden shutdown and began flashing their lights while attempting to maneuver around them. However, one of the vehicles parked in the middle of the road while waiting for the fog to clear up, which only worsened the traffic situation. After about six minutes, the fog went away, and the Waymo train started up again and went on its way.

Still, the fact that these five vehicles stopped and parked themselves in the middle of a road with residential traffic is far from ideal. Waymo's acknowledgment of the problem is a good start, but the only solution is to fix it. This is not the first time self-driving vehicles from any company have experienced potentially dangerous problems.