Don Adkins was walking along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles late one night this month when he heard a plea for help.
“Please close the right-side rear door, thanks,” Adkins recalled a synthetic voice calling out. It came from a Jaguar SUV stopped in the street with its lights flashing. One of the hundreds of Waymo robotaxis in Los Angeles operated by Alphabet was in trouble.
From where Adkins stood on the sidewalk, the door appeared closed, and he was initially going to ignore the robotaxi, he said in a phone interview. But he decided to act after a human driver stuck behind the Waymo started honking. Adkins stepped into the street and pushed the autonomous vehicle’s rear door until it was fully closed. Then he watched as the robotaxi rolled away.
Adkins had witnessed an Achilles’ heel of the Waymo robotaxis that ferry thousands of riders in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities each week. The vehicles can navigate city streets and compete with taxi drivers without anyone behind the wheel — but become stranded if a human doesn’t close the door behind them at the end of a ride.
Because riders and passersby can be unreliable, Waymo pays workers in Los Angeles $20 or more for rescuing a robotaxi by closing a door, summoning help through an app called Honk that is like an Uber for towing companies.
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