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self-driving cars are getting close....

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The Wall Street Journal
1M Followers
Waymo’s Self-Driving Cars Are Suddenly Behaving Like New York Cabbies
Story by Katherine Bindley
• 2d • 4 min read
In this article
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. UBER ▲ ‎+0.33%‎
Waymos were long known for their achingly cautious behavior. © Jeff Chiu/AP

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—It was like a scene out of a movie: a pair of
white Jaguars zipping through a two-lane tunnel, changing lanes at the
same time in a zigzag formation. But this one had a twist. They were
both Waymos, the self-driving vehicles known for their achingly cautious
behavior.
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“I had never seen anyone switch lanes in that tunnel,” says Sophia Yen,
a startup founder who was in her car behind the two autonomous ones this
past September. “It’s driving more like a taxi driver—an aggressive, New
York taxi driver.”

For years while training on the streets of San Francisco and eventually
transporting passengers, Waymos were the most polite drivers on the
road. Pull up to a stop sign at the same time as a Waymo and it would
wait, as if to say, “No, please, after you.” If you were trying to go
around another car making a left, a Waymo was sure to let you in. In
short, they were drivers you wouldn’t want to get stuck behind while in
a hurry.

The training wheels are off. Like the rule-following nice guy who’s
tired of being taken advantage of, Waymos are putting their own needs
first. They’re bending traffic laws, getting impatient with pedestrians
and embracing the idea that when it comes to city driving, politeness
doesn’t pay: It’s every car for itself.
Waymos appear to be putting their own needs first, bending traffic laws
and getting impatient with pedestrians. © Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP

In September, police in San Bruno, Calif., pulled over a Waymo after
witnessing it make an illegal U-turn. Last month, a Waymo hit and killed
a well-known neighborhood cat in the Mission district. On a recent
Thursday in Pacific Heights, a Waymo at a multilane four-way stop hit
the gas along with the car next to it so it wouldn’t have to wait its
turn. Seconds later, the same car decided signaling a lane change wasn’t
necessary.
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Jennifer Jeffries, 54, has logged nearly 3,000 minutes in Waymos since
May 2024. Until recently, the Pacific Heights resident wouldn’t take one
if she was headed downtown. They weren’t agile enough. She once got
stuck for several minutes behind another car that was double parked
while furniture was being unloaded.

She now has no problem taking Waymos downtown and finds they maneuver as
well as an Uber driver, maybe better.

“They will go around a car or get closer to a car than a human driver
would,” says Jeffries. “Sometimes I’ll be in the back seat and I’ll be
like, ‘Ooh that was really close.’”

One drawback: They seem to be mimicking Uber drivers in less-helpful
ways: “You say pick me up at this address and they’re across the street,
which I don’t appreciate,” she says.

Marc Schreiber, 49, liked it better when Waymos were strict followers of
traffic laws. While walking to the gym, Schreiber found himself in a
crosswalk opposite a Waymo. As soon as he’d made it past the front of
the vehicle, it started accelerating.


“I was taken off guard,” says Schreiber. “My next thought was, oh
they’ve changed the programming to be more aggressive.”

He was right.

Waymo has been trying to make its cars “confidently assertive,” says
Chris Ludwick, a senior director of product management with Waymo, which
is owned by Google parent Alphabet. “That was really necessary for us to
actually scale this up in San Francisco, especially because of how busy
it gets.”

Ludwick says when the vehicles are too passive, they become disruptive.
Regular software updates ensure Waymos aren’t becoming a nuisance or
creating chaos.

Ludwick wouldn’t comment on specific incidents of rulebreaking. He says
Waymos make common-sense decisions, which involve trade-offs.
Waymo says it has been trying to make its cars more ‘confidently
assertive.’ © Getty Images

“The driver is designed to respect the rules of the road,” says Ludwick.
“However, sometimes this is a nuanced topic and road rules can even
conflict with each other.”

For example, he says, you’re not supposed to cross a double yellow line
but you also shouldn’t obstruct traffic. So if you get stuck behind a
stopped delivery truck, a human would go around it even if it meant
crossing the double line. Now Waymos know to do that, too.


A Waymo spokeswoman says its vehicles have driven 100 million driverless
miles across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix and Atlanta.
The company reported that compared with human drivers, it has had 91%
fewer crashes involving a serious injury or worse.

Cossette Drossler, 65, says a friend recently told her about a Waymo
pulling a “California stop.” The car apparently slowed down but didn’t
reduce its speed to zero at an intersection.

Drossler, who lives in Pacific Heights and owns an accounting services
firm, feels conflicted on the evolving behavior. She doesn’t want to be
behind a Waymo that’s coming to a complete stop in a quiet neighborhood
when no one’s around. On the other hand, she doesn’t entirely trust them
to appropriately judge the risk.

“I do California rolling stops. I grew up in San Francisco,” says
Drossler, adding, “I only do it if it’s safe.”

Waymo says its cars are designed to come to a full stop.
There have been reports of Waymos doing the ‘California stop,’ which
involves not actually stopping. © Poppy Lynch for WSJ

Police Sgt. Scott Smithmatungol, who was on patrol in San Bruno one
September night, says he and his partner were looking for impaired
drivers when they got to talking about Waymos and how they were starting
to drive more like humans.

Just then, a Waymo opposite them in the intersection made a U-turn. The
pair looked up, saw the no-U-turn sign and put their lights on. The
Waymo pulled over. As Smithmatungol’s partner approached the driver’s
side window, it rolled down. A Waymo operator’s voice came on through a
speaker.

“They said they would look into it,” he says. “They were really, really
apologetic.” Currently, cops in California can’t cite a car without a
driver.

The law is about to change.

Write to Katherine Bindley at katie.bindley@wsj.com

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