A May 2021 video from YouTube blogger Joel Johnson underlined the challenges that remain in self-driving vehicle development. The 35-minute upload shows a Waymo service operating in Chandler, Phoenix, where the developer is allowed to trial its autonomous vehicles (AVs) without a safety driver among a select group of customers. In the video, the vehicle repeatedly gets stuck along a busy intersection, due in part to the construction work cones deployed in the right lane. To stop the vehicle holding up traffic, a roadside assistance team is deployed, but on two occasions, the vehicle effectively ‘runs away’ from the team, driving off before they can board.
With no passengers to worry about, autonomous delivery vehicle developers can focus entirely on protecting those outside of the vehicle. By Xavier Boucherat
