Self-Driving Vehicles Are Disrupting First Responders. The Feds Are Not Happy

The subject of the top road safety organization in the US warned autonomous vehicle Developers in a letter on Wednesday about what he called “unacceptable” example of driverless cars disrupting the work of law enforcement and other first responders.

“Let’s put it bluntly: an AV that can’t interact with first responders is dangerous to everyone,” said Jonathan Morrison, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). he wrote in a letter he described as a “call to action” for technology developers.

Morrison wrote that NHTSA has written “clear example” of interference in the past few months, including incidents where cars go to the emergency room, shut down ambulances and firefightersand did not respond to incidents involving flashing lights, fires, and traffic.

He told developers to “immediately establish what they have to address this issue,” and said NHTSA will schedule meetings with each company in late July to hear about responses. Neither Waymo nor Zoox responded to WIRED’s request for comment.

Officials with several city law enforcement agencies and emergency departments told NHTSA representatives at a public hearing earlier this year that the Waymo robotaxis was hindering emergency responses, WIRED reported in April. A fire official said that the behavior of the vehicles in such conditions is “a safety issue for our workers and those involved.”

A San Francisco official told the agency that the company’s technology was “going backwards,” and the city’s fire chief said, “Waymo often closes our fire stations to access.” A representative from the Austin Police Department said that Waymos tends to freeze up during emergencies, and the vehicles often fail to respond to police hand signals in emergencies.

“I believe the technology was deployed too quickly, with hundreds of vehicles, when it wasn’t ready,” an Austin police officer said, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by WIRED.

Austin first responders appeared at a special City Council meeting this year to discuss how a Waymo robotaxi blocked an ambulance for two minutes while trying to respond to a mass shooting that killed three people and injured at least 14.

In a letter this week, Mr Morrison said his agency would “continue to use our power to target developers who do not address security issues.” NHTSA has issued several recalls related to autonomous vehicle technology over the past few years, including two related to Waymo’s practices. in the flooded streets and near construction areasand another involving Zoox robotaxis to stop in front of oncoming traffic. (The companies said both were resolved through software updates.) The Austin school district also worked with Waymo to train its vehicles to stop school buses, even fixing them. it didn’t work right away.

In a Press release On Wednesday, NHTSA reiterated the Trump administration’s work to ease regulations that prohibit autonomous vehicles from operating on public roads. Last month, in the field of purpose-built robotaxis, incl Tesla and Zoox, a corporation it made it easier for companies to ship vehicles that do not meet safety requirements for vehicles because they do not have steering wheels, parking brakes, or rearview mirrors.