Waymo Confused Behind A Trailer With a Tree

A video of a Waymo driving behind a trailer with a loaded tree amuses the experts. You can see the driverless robotaxi repeatedly swerving to the left and right while driving. What is happening here?

Well, this is one of those situations that causes confusion. The vehicle’s sensors detect both a vehicle in front of it and a tree, and the classification seems to alternate. The navigation system, on the other hand, says there is a road here. The system has not yet recognized a moving tree on a road and tries to avoid it. Because a tree is a tree, and they are usually stationary. But this one is on a trailer, which is moving and therefore non-stationary.

🫣 Waymo always show up doing some insane stuff on my timeline

It looks like a 10 year old taking a joy ride in grandma’s car pic.twitter.com/FbgJGauTnZ

— Greggertruck (@greggertruck) May 14, 2024

The first 15 seconds of the ride are on North 15th Avenue in Phoenix southbound, from Thomas Road to West Edgemont Avenue. The second 15 seconds are for North 15th Avenue southbound, from McDowell Road and West Roosevelt Street (source: reddit).

There was a similar case before with the Tesla with FSD driving behind a trailer with traffic lights and considering these traffic lights to be active.

A short lesson on object tracking 🧑🏻‍🏫

Look at this video from a @Tesla Model 3 driving on the highway. The display shows multiple traffic lights coming out of the truck in front towards the car. What's going on? 🤔

This is a typical case of a 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀!

Thread 👇 pic.twitter.com/8gjUdtkZik

— haltakov.eth 🧱🔨 (@haltakov) June 4, 2021

This article was also published in German.