How Autonomous Cars Deal With Double Parking

With ever more autonomous experimental cars roaming the streets of Silicon Valley, the more interesting driving scenarios are encountered and posted by people. One such scenario that popped up in the last days multiple times, is how autonomous cars deal with double parking.

The first video shows a GMCruise vehicle that for at least a minute is waiting behind a double parked delivery van, with its warning signals turned on. As the original poster speculates, the vehicle could have waited for instructions from a control center, and only then took measures, waiting first for oncoming traffic and then cross the double line to pass the van.

This maneuver is interesting insofar as the safety driver does not seem to take over control of the vehicles, but have the car either get instructions from a control center or have the car being remote controlled. Either way, to fulfill the task the vehicle has to break traffic rules by crossing a double line marker.

The second example posted by Zoox shows six of such situations with deliver vans and trash collector car. Interesting here is to see what the car recognizes and categorizes, and how it even interprets intent of other vehicles, such as an example of a second oncoming car that yields to the robot car.

Both posts were recorded in San Francisco, where Zoox and GMCruise are also testing their vehicles.

This article was also published in German.