DETROIT, MI — The U.S. government's highway safety agency has opened another investigation of automated driving systems, this time into crashes involving Waymo's self-driving vehicles.
In the crashes, the Waymo vehicles hit stationary objects such as gates, chains or parked vehicles. Some of the incidents happened shortly after the Waymo driving system behaved unexpectedly near traffic control devices, according to the documents. Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said NHTSA's more aggressive actions show that autonomous vehicles may not be ready yet for public roads.
The agency said it understands that Waymo's automated driving system was engaged throughout each incident, or in some cases involving a test vehicle, a human driver disengaged the system just before an accident happened. NHTSA also is investigating General Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit after getting reports that the vehicles may not have used proper caution around pedestrians. Cruise recalled its cars to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October.