Waymo Self – Driving Cars Are Now Capable Of Reacting To Police Hand Signals

Indira Datta - Apr 30, 2019

Waymo released a video demonstrating how Waymo's self-driving car is able to receive signals from the police when the traffic lights are not functioning.

People doubt whether self-driving cars can handle unusual and unexpected situations. For instance, what would happen if traffic lights at one of the major intersections are out and drivers have to follow police officers' signals?

Last Wednesday, Waymo released a video which demonstrates the car's autopilot ability to handle this kind of situations. The video clip has already been sped up shows a Waymo vehicle stops when it detects an intersection although the traffic lights are not working.

You can watch the entire process through the video below:

As there is no signal of the traffic light, the car's computer vision has confirmed the traffic police's stop signals and followed that order. Then it continued to move after the police signaled for the vehicles to go.

Waymocastle 28 — Waymo's self-driving car can cope with broken traffic lights

This is what Waymo once mentioned in their blog post in 2016. It says its automotive software and sensors are able to identify very quickly and react to the signals from cyclist and thereby control the car to turn or stop in order to avoid unexpected accidents.

Waymocastle 22 — Signals and turns for pedestrians and cyclists are also well recognized by the software

According to the report, Waymo's autonomous vehicles have totaled 1.26 million miles in 2018. This shows that Waymo has many advantages and opportunities in researching and developing its software so that they can be applied more effectively on the road.

Waymo Traffic Cop — The simulation showed Waymo's self-driving car received a stop signal from the police.

Another impressive feat that Waymo's self-driving vehicle has made is the period between disengagement times. This is the situation where the autopilot system requires the driver to take control of the vehicle. Waymo's AI system is stronger and more clever when it can drive 11,000 miles before handing control over to the human driver. This gap is an outstanding advantage for its rivals and shows very good development and improvement of Waymo's autonomous system.