Technology

Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina wrote: “We deeply value our partnership with first responders and our shared commitment to safety. Their ongoing feedback has been instrumental in driving impactful improvements to the Waymo service.” [...] The company says it has conducted in-person training for more than 35,000 emergency responders across the country.

Instead of adapting Waymo to the needs of humans and emergency services, let's just tell them how they need to change to fit us instead!

reflect long-simmering and sometimes vocal frustrations expressed by city leaders since at least late last year. Since autonomous vehicle operations are regulated in California and Texas by state rather than city officials, local first-responder departments and those who represent them can generally only request that developers like Waymo make specific changes to their operations.

Sounds like they don't really value those relationships like they claim to.

to connect [...] with Waymo operators to move the vehicle, [...] it had taken up to three minutes to connect with a remote agent in the past. They reiterated that Waymos don’t always respond well to hand signals, especially ones from police mounted on motorcycles. Waymo declined to attend the meeting [...] the Waymo spokesperson, said the company has "already had the substantive conversations this moment calls for,” and said the company has answered questions from city officials.

Translation: we're tired of listening to you, get out of our way and let our cars run free!

“We will keep working with Austin's leadership and first-responder community, because ongoing collaboration is how we build the trust this city deserves and make Austin’s streets safer,” she wrote.

Lol, that's not at all what you're doing. Are you taking Republican lessons in lying, double-speak, and aggressive non-listening?