Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting • Hacker News Board

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#31

Post by nine_zeros » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:51 PM UTC

tapoxi wrote: post #22

mxfh wrote: post #8

Cars block the street all the time, there is ample place to pass the waymo car on the left in the opposing lane, yet those SUV driving humans don't care to move out of the way either, and police just blocks the maneuver area too. That silver car in the front could also just pass in front and make space. Situational awareness has room to be improved for a lot of entities in this short video. Nueces Street is 3 and hal…

You can arrest a driver for not making space for an emergency vehicle. Who do we arrest here?

[dead]

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#32

Post by KennyBlanken » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:52 PM UTC

tapoxi wrote: post #22

mxfh wrote: post #8

Cars block the street all the time, there is ample place to pass the waymo car on the left in the opposing lane, yet those SUV driving humans don't care to move out of the way either, and police just blocks the maneuver area too. That silver car in the front could also just pass in front and make space. Situational awareness has room to be improved for a lot of entities in this short video. Nueces Street is 3 and hal…

You can arrest a driver for not making space for an emergency vehicle. Who do we arrest here?

The person who was ultimately responsible for a defective robot operating on our public streets, at a bare minimum.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#33

Post by aduty » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:53 PM UTC

tapoxi wrote: post #22

mxfh wrote: post #8

Cars block the street all the time, there is ample place to pass the waymo car on the left in the opposing lane, yet those SUV driving humans don't care to move out of the way either, and police just blocks the maneuver area too. That silver car in the front could also just pass in front and make space. Situational awareness has room to be improved for a lot of entities in this short video. Nueces Street is 3 and hal…

You can arrest a driver for not making space for an emergency vehicle. Who do we arrest here?

Start disabling and towing their cars and watch a solution magically appear.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#34

Post by KennyBlanken » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:53 PM UTC

dangero wrote: post #14

The problem we will encounter with self driving cars is that while they will make less mistakes than humans, they will make different mistakes. Humans will continue to have a hard time accepting this tradeoff. I live in LA where Waymos are now on every street. My experience is that they don’t respect human courtesy, so for example if I need to cross a lane of busy traffic, a human may brake as a courtesy to let me th…

> The problem we will encounter with self driving cars is that while they will make less mistakes than humans

This is only true for certain self-driving cars. Tesla and Uber are among the worst, and are far worse than human drivers. Something like 10x, I believe, in terms of miles driven?

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#35

Post by general1465 » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:53 PM UTC

KennyBlanken wrote: post #32

tapoxi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can arrest a driver for not making space for an emergency vehicle. Who do we arrest here?

The person who was ultimately responsible for a defective robot operating on our public streets, at a bare minimum.

A customer?

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#36

Post by himata4113 » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:54 PM UTC

KennyBlanken wrote: post #29

I've never understood why everyone acts like this is some bizarre legal quagmire. If I make a robot and it goes and kills someone, nobody sits around navel gazing wondering how they're going to prosecute a robot. If I make a device that pulls the trigger of a gun aimed at someone tied to a chair when I click a button on my cell phone, or something green appears in the camera attached to the device, or time reaches 11…

I can feel like a lot of people will disagree with you, but this is a pretty fair comparison. The people will disagree the most is the waymo users and I see their POV as well since as they have said: "much better than uber and always on time".

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#37

Post by snickerbockers » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:54 PM UTC

orliesaurus wrote: post #16

This is my town, wow - cant believe someone filmed this whole interaction while there was a shooting a couple of blocks from there... If the ambulance was in a hurry they could have rammed the Waymo, I am sure Google wouldn't have sued for damages. AFAIK when a Waymo detects emergency vehicle lights and sirens, it is designed to pull over and stop, unlock its doors, and roll down its windows. Also: First responders c…

>If the ambulance was in a hurry

i believe they were.

>they could have rammed the Waymo

Not an expert but i think the goal is to get the ambulance and its occupants to a specific location and then make an egress to a nearby medical facility? Also I'm not confident ambulances are designed to execute the pit maneuver.

>I am sure Google wouldn't have sued for damages.

Oh well if that's the case i guess it's all alright.

>First responders can put the vehicle into a manual mode to move it if needed.

I really feel like you're missing the point of why you're supposed to pull over and yield right-of-way for emergency vehicles.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#38

Post by wnevets » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:54 PM UTC

tapoxi wrote: post #22

mxfh wrote: post #8

Cars block the street all the time, there is ample place to pass the waymo car on the left in the opposing lane, yet those SUV driving humans don't care to move out of the way either, and police just blocks the maneuver area too. That silver car in the front could also just pass in front and make space. Situational awareness has room to be improved for a lot of entities in this short video. Nueces Street is 3 and hal…

You can arrest a driver for not making space for an emergency vehicle. Who do we arrest here?

> You can arrest a driver for not making space for an emergency vehicle. Who do we arrest here?

That's the best part, no one! We have finally managed to invent a system that widely disperses accountability so much no one can be held liable when something goes wrong.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#39

Post by rfrey » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:54 PM UTC

ibejoeb wrote: post #30

dangero wrote: post #14

The problem we will encounter with self driving cars is that while they will make less mistakes than humans, they will make different mistakes. Humans will continue to have a hard time accepting this tradeoff. I live in LA where Waymos are now on every street. My experience is that they don’t respect human courtesy, so for example if I need to cross a lane of busy traffic, a human may brake as a courtesy to let me th…

That courtesy is almost always bad practice and is generally unlawful. You must yield right of way to a pedestrian at a legal crossing, but california has codes that prohibit impeding normal traffic flow, including stopping in the street to wave across a pedestrian where there is no such crossing. It's especially dangerous on multi-lane roads because the stopped vehicle can blind the pedestrian to other traffic.

In many places, traffic would not function if drivers did not e.g. make space for other drivers to change lanes. It's an extraordinary claim to say such behaviour is bad practice (or even illegal??)

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#40

Post by orliesaurus » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 10:54 PM UTC

Someone on Austin's subreddit said the following and I think it's the correct take/lens:

> I might get downvoted for expressing my feelings but whatever. I hate seeing my coworkers being ridiculed for simply doing the right thing and moving on with their work. I’ve been abused and called an idiot on here for stating our reality. I’m a paramedic. We will NOT attempt to move or hit a vehicle, person, or object to go to a call or transport a patient. Especially if there’s an option for an alternate route. People cut us off, don’t move, flick us off, and generally don’t regard us even with our lights and sirens on. Is it frustrating? Absolutely. Do we like it? Hell no. But getting in trouble or under investigation for a collision or possibly causing unnecessary harm simply isn’t worth it. I know this was high profile, tragic, and absolutely dire. But you have to remember, we live this everyday and this is not the first time a vehicle, object, or person has gotten in this paramedic or EMTs way and it won’t be the last. Don’t even get me started on the amount of verbal abuse and assaults we deal with. This is a very hard job and we are under constant scrutiny but I promise you we try and do our very best every day. So please do us a favor next time you see us out on the streets and give us some grace.