Case Study: Waymo improves AV emergency-vehicle handling with Foretellix virtual simulation

Waymo Robotaxis Stranded in San Francisco

The autonomous vehicle company Waymo faced a challenge when one of its robotaxis became stranded on a narrow street in San Francisco, blocking an emergency vehicle. This incident highlighted a critical edge case in its software's ability to navigate complex urban environments and yield to priority vehicles. To address this, Waymo partnered with vendor Foretellix and utilized its Foretify platform to rigorously test and validate a solution.

Foretellix recreated the incident in simulation using the OpenSCENARIO 2.0 standard within its Foretify toolchain. After a software update was implemented to fix the issue, Foretellix used its platform to run thousands of constrained-random test variations. This hyperscale virtual testing validated the fix, uncovered a new dangerous edge case involving rain and nighttime conditions, and significantly increased confidence in the safety of the software update for large-scale deployment.

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