What If the Waymo System Fails? Though Waymo is undoubtedly an amazing technological driven autonomous car. The AI used in it is super advanced and futuristic, but we should not forget to think about a machine’s failure which can happen with any so can be with Waymo too!
Here we are going to discuss whether Waymo has a backup technology that can be used during its system failure along with some safety guidelines and protection tips too to keep yourself safe if such a situation occurs with you.
What happens when Waymo’s system fails?
Though Waymo’s system is lassed with advanced features. However the chances are rare, but the system may fail at any time so it is very necessary to know the backup mechanism of it to keep yourself safe and protected along with the others on the road.
There are various in-built backup controller systems that work to control the vehicle in such adverse situations. To understand it first we need to look at the overview of Waymo’s autonomous driving technology.
Overview of Waymo’s Autonomous Driving Technology
Waymo’s Autonomous driving works on dozens of components and software. These are cameras, lidar, radar and the compute system. These all keep working all the time when the car is on a ride. They capture the images of surroundings in 3D mode and then compare with the data fed in. After that the compute system takes the action based on the behavioral prediction as per the object’s speed and mobility.
What is Waymo’s backup technology
Waymo has been designed after thousands of hours of research to ensure it to be the safest vehicle on the roads. Thus multiple backups get installed in it to control the car in the critical condition. These backup systems are briefly described below and you can go through to take the info:
Redundant Steering
This is the foremost important controlling system of a car and in Waymo’s case- as per the official documents and website there is a secondary controller system in the vehicle that activates immediately if the primary controller starts malfunctioning. This secondary controller is independent and works on a separate power supply to make sure to control the car in the primary steering failure’s situation.
Redundant Braking
After steering the second important aspect to control the car and its speed is the braking system. So it is also very important to know whether Waymo is integrated with a secondary braking system or not. Likewise secondary steering the development and engineering team has implemented an in-built secondary braking system which is deployed to stop the car to the safe location in any adverse situation.
Backup collision detection and avoidance system
Apart from the above two the Waymo has a collision detection system too that can measure the objects behind the car and the surrounding. This system ensures to either slow down the speed or to stop the car if required to keep everyone safe whether these are other vehicles or the pedestrians. This system starts acting immediately when the primary system stops responding.
Redundant inertial measurement systems for vehicle positioning
This system works along the above one to measure the motion of the objects to know if they are mobile or not. After getting the information then the system takes decisions as required in the situation of any fault occurring in the primary system.
Secondary Compute
This is the main brain of Waymo which is responsible for making desired actions to control the car and the whole system. The secondary computer system always stays active in the background to make sure to take the command immediately after the primary system fails. This system is trained to stop the vehicle to a safe place in any adverse situation.
What happens if Waymo crashes?
As we explained above about the backup technology of Waymo, it is trained to identify the collision and will immediately send the message automatically to its operation center to notify them about the situation.
How many times has Waymo crashed?
As per the data available till July 2021 given by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), Waymo crashed about 150 times and after that till February 2023 it was two crashes.
Who controls Waymo?
Waymo is primarily known to be Google’s self-driving car which is the subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. U.S. It is fully controlled by the most advanced AI technology of machine learning called Deep Learning.
Is Waymo fully electric?
Yes, Waymo is fully electric, the most advanced and world’s first fully autonomous vehicle.
Last Verdict
Undoubtedly Waymo is the most advanced fully autonomous car which has a backup technology too that works when the primary system gets failed and stop the vehicle at the safe location. Waymo backup technology and process we have described above in detail. Hope you will like the info. For any suggestion feel free to contact us.
