What do Atlanta Police do when a Waymo stalls on the road or slowly rolls into a closed area near a crime scene, which happened earlier this month on Cheshire Bridge Road?
There's a standard operating procedure for that.
Zoom in: The Atlanta Police Department's 6-page SOP outlines the steps officers should take if they need to pull over, disable or move stalled, damaged or malfunctioning Waymo vehicles.
According to the document, Waymo cars are designed to pull over and safely stop — and then roll down the car's windows and unlock the doors — for police or emergency vehicles using flashing lights behind the car.
The car will connect the police officer with a Waymo representative, who can then dispatch someone to pick up the vehicle if necessary.
Officers who close a road for a significant amount of time because of a crime — like the Cheshire Bridge Road incident — should request a geofence be placed around the area or park a patrol vehicle to prevent cars from entering.
"Waymo may not be able to recognize crime scene tape across the roadway."
Fun fact: "The court system is currently unable to process traffic citations for [autonomous vehicles] with no human operator," the SOP says.
"If the vehicle violates a traffic law, where a citation would be warranted, the officer must write a report providing the details surrounding the incident and the law that was violated."
