Emergency officials in San Francisco and Austin told federal regulators last month that Waymo's self-driving cars are getting worse at dealing with emergency situations, not better.
In a private meeting with NHTSA obtained by WIRED, officials described vehicles freezing in intersections. Cars blocking fire station exits. Failures to recognize police hand signals.
Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management, said the cars are "committing more traffic violations" and called it a regression.
Chief Patrick Rabbitt of the San Francisco Fire Department said Waymos are "frequently now blocking our fire stations from access" and that their default response is to freeze. When a car just stops and won't move, fire trucks can't get through. Seconds matter.
In Austin, Lieutenant William White told regulators the cars often don't respond to officers' hand signals, despite Waymo's assurances. "I believe the technology was deployed too quickly in too vast amounts, with hundreds of vehicles, when it wasn't really ready," he said.
These complaints arrive during a rapid expansion.
Waymo now provides 500,000 paid rides weekly across 10 US cities and plans to enter 10 more markets including London and New York City. But the technical problems likely stem from that growth. As the system encounters new traffic patterns and emergency protocols in different cities, it's running into situations it can't handle. The freezing behavior suggests confidence thresholds dropping when the cars face something unfamiliar.
City officials have limited power to intervene. In both California and Texas, autonomous vehicles are regulated at the state level. Local departments can only request changes. In Austin, Waymo declined to attend a City Council meeting about an incident where one of its cars blocked an ambulance responding to a deadly shooting. Two front-row chairs labeled "RESERVED FOR: WAYMO" sat empty for two hours.