Engineer Sophia Tung from the US was able to ride Waymo’s robotaxi for free until the battery ran out

Engineer Sophia Tung from the US was able to ride Waymo’s robotaxi for free until the battery ran out

Tech enthusiast and software engineer Sophia Tung (developer at X (Twitter)) from San Francisco was able to ride Waymo’s robotaxi for free for a few hours before the self-driving car’s battery died.

In the past, Waymo robot taxis near Tung’s home kept her and other people awake at night by honking their horns. The company tried several times to solve this problem. It turns out that local residents have literally become testers for Waymo’s robotaxis in and around parking lots, letting the developers know what other situations make the cars buzz.

Tung publicly complained about this situation. Waymo decided to appease her and gave her a promo code for several free taxi rides.

Tung found out that such free trips have no time limit. She decided to take the longest possible ride on a Waymo robot taxi.

As a result, Tung was able to drive through the city for 6.5 hours without stopping. This result was one of the longest customer journeys in the company’s history.

Tung explained that she could have gone further, but the Jaguar I-PACE electric car started to run out of battery.

How did the engineer manage to ride for so long, since the range of taxis was limited only to San Francisco? Tung found a bug in Waymo’s system.

It turned out that the passenger can make only four stops during the trip. After that, he must exit the robotaxis and summon it again. Here, the number of stops is limited, but you can change them many times. Tung changed the destination when she was about to arrive at the place at the previously indicated address.

In general, Tung rode around the city, broadcast from a robotaxi. She even sat other people with her for company. However, in order not to waste time stopping, they got into the car on the go.

Waymo will now refine the rules for the validity of promo codes, including limits on the time of free trips, as well as on the number of route changes.

Interestingly, Tung didn’t want to offend Waymo in her test. She said that after 6.5 hours in the robotax, the girl trusts the manner of driving a self-driving car more than herself.

Previously, the developers of the Waymo robot taxi encountered an unexpected bug in the operation of the delivery system. A passenger can fall asleep at the end of the trip to San Francisco, and only the rescuers can wake him up, although their call is ten times more expensive than the cost of a human delivery service. Robotaxis developers did not foresee such a development. Although the situation with a passenger falling asleep in the cabin does not occur often, its solution requires the participation of several people, as well as special equipment, which is very expensive.

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