What Happens When A Driverless Car Gets Pulled Over?

In my mind, autonomous vehicles on the road are still a thing from sci-fi films…

But in Phoenix, Arizona in the USA, Google’s Waymo runs a fleet of self-driving vehicles that roam the roads.

They’re used for ridesharing and if you order an Uber in Phoenix, there’s a chance that a driverless car will be picking you up.

The question is, what happens if a police officers pulls over a driverless car?

Well, we might have an answer because that’s exactly what happened the other week when the driverless Waymo ran a red light.

CLICK HERE to read the full story on why a police officer pulled over a driverless car

As we head towards a future where autonomous vehicles are more common, whether that’s buses, trains, taxis or even fleet vehicles (and private vehicles), we’ve still got more questions than answers.

Testing is a huge part of the process and that’s why when the driverless vehicle malfunctioned, it was important to figure out why.

Thankfully, the self-driving car pulled into a parking lot after running a red light, which is when the police officer followed it and walked over… to find no driver inside.

It automatically connected to Rider Support, where the officer spoke with tech support who took a look at the video to figure out what went wrong.

After investigation, it turns out that ‘inconsistent construction signage’ caused the car to malfunction, meaning that it ran a red light to clear the junction and reset.

A sign that more testing and work needs to be done before we see driverless vehicles everywhere, perhaps…