Failure mode they hadn’t thought of yet
I don't know if there are newer standards to this, though.
Afaik, there's no requirement to allow those doors to be opened from the inside, like there is for trunks.
I haven't crawled around in the trunk of one looking for the release latch, but there probably isn't a latch given that Jag doesn't even put them into the European models of their sedans.
Obvious but worth considering.
The Jaguar I-Pace Waymo is using here has a 5th door, so it's not legally required to have an interior latch.
That said, it's impossible to anticipate everything that will happen out in the real world. Most of those stories, especially the fun ones, don't make it to news.
My 2018 Subaru Crosstrek came with an attachable screen to cover items in the trunk so they cannot be seen from the window. But apparently you can open that door from the inside if you remove a plastic panel or something like that.
If this interior handle is not required for 5th door vehicles it should be.
I personally caused a traffic jam at Valley Fair recently because I got in the car at the same time the previous people left, so it thought the previous trip had never ended and just sat there forever until I got out again.
Thinking, at Google, is a lost skill. Just look at Android: Wanna send a text message and disabled microphone access for Messages ? The damn thing still defaults to recording messages.
We've seen examples of this where in SF people put traffic cones on the hoods of Waymos to stop them, sometimes for good reasons (eg going through a road closed to construction) and sometimes probably not.
I can also imagine human drivers treating self-driving cars on the road very differently essentially through lack of fear. Cut one off? it has no driver who might in a fit of range run you off the road or pull a gun on you.
You see a similar sort of thing with apartment buildings in NYC. Many have doormen. Will a doorman prevent someone stealing something or seeking unauthorized entry? Probably not but most people aren't that determined. The presence of a human adds a whole bunch of risk factors that an AI won't.
We see it with alarms on houses. People are often way more afraid of dogs than alarms. Or even the potential of someone with a gun.
So if this car had a driver, this wouldn't have happened. I'm sure software can be written to deal with this particular situation but you will be fighting a neverending series of human behaviors that will only happen because there's no driver.
fsckboy•1mo ago
there are plenty of incidents of people getting in fights with their Uber driver, cab driver, etc (remember Anjali Ramkissoon the med student who had a little too much to drink?) but it seems like the "driverless automaton" world late at night might present a new set of weird expectations for awhile till practices and safeguards get ironed out.
here's the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsX8hNpaAOE