Autonomously Navigating the Actual World: Classes from the PG&E Outage

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By The Waymo Workforce

At Waymo, our mission is to be the world’s most trusted driver. We all know belief is constructed by way of constant habits over time—earned by way of each mile we drive and each interplay we’ve got with the group. This previous Saturday, as a widespread PG&E outage minimize energy to almost one-third of San Francisco, our service was put to the take a look at. With energy now restored, we wish to share an account of our operations throughout the outage and the way we’re evolving to raised serve town.

The dimensions of the outage and the sheer variety of disabled visitors lights have been the first contributors to city-wide gridlock. As indicators went darkish throughout main corridors, the ensuing congestion required legislation enforcement to manually handle intersections. The scenario was extreme sufficient that the San Francisco Division of Emergency Administration suggested residents to remain residence, underscoring the extraordinary nature of the weekend’s disruptions.

Navigating an occasion of this magnitude introduced a novel problem for autonomous expertise. Whereas the Waymo Driver is designed to deal with darkish visitors indicators as four-way stops, it might sometimes request a affirmation verify to make sure it makes the most secure alternative. Whereas we efficiently traversed greater than 7,000 darkish indicators on Saturday, the outage created a concentrated spike in these requests. This created a backlog that, in some instances, led to response delays contributing to congestion on already-overwhelmed streets.

We established these affirmation protocols out of an abundance of warning throughout our early deployment, and we at the moment are refining them to match our present scale. Whereas this technique was efficient throughout smaller outages, we at the moment are implementing fleet-wide updates that present the Driver with particular energy outage context, permitting it to navigate extra decisively.

Because the outage continued and Metropolis officers urged residents to remain off the streets to prioritize first responders, we quickly paused our service within the space. We directed our fleet to tug over and park appropriately so we may return autos to our depots in waves. This ensured we didn’t additional add to the congestion or hinder emergency autos throughout the peak of the restoration effort.

The trail ahead

We’ve at all times centered on growing the Waymo Driver for the world as it’s, together with when infrastructure fails. We’re analyzing the occasion, and are already integrating the teachings from this weekend’s PG&E outage. Listed here are a number of the speedy steps we’re taking:

• Integrating extra details about outages: Whereas our Driver already handles darkish visitors indicators as four-way stops, we at the moment are rolling out fleet-wide updates that give our autos much more context about regional outages, permitting them to navigate these intersections extra decisively.
• Updating our emergency preparedness and response: We’ll enhance our emergency response protocols, incorporating classes from this occasion. In San Francisco, we’ll proceed to coordinate with Mayor Lurie’s staff to determine areas of larger collaboration in our current emergency preparedness plans.
• Increasing our first responder engagement: So far, we’ve educated greater than 25,000 first responders within the U.S. and around the globe on tips on how to work together with Waymo. As we uncover learnings from this and different widespread occasions, we’ll proceed updating our first responder coaching.

Undaunted in our mission to make our streets safer

We reside and work in San Francisco, and we’re grateful to town’s first responders for his or her tireless work, and to Mayor Lurie for his management.

Backed by 100M+ miles of totally autonomous driving expertise and a document of bettering highway security, we’re undaunted by the chance to problem the established order of our roads, and we’re proud to proceed serving San Franciscan residents and guests.