Waymo's 'Cyclist Approaching' Feature Has An Edge Over Tesla's Autopilot — But Dog Detection Still Lags

Alphabet Inc‘s GOOG GOOGL autonomous driving tech unit Waymo has a cyclist approaching feature, which one user has called the “best-feeling feature of the company.”

What Happened: Lee Edwards took to X, formerly Twitter, to talk about the feature.

“‘Cyclist approaching,’ continues to be the best-feeling feature of Waymo and a great example of how the technology they've developed can have applications way beyond rideshare,” Edwards wrote. Waymo themselves reposted the comment.

Why It Matters: Waymo Driver is a fully autonomous technology rather than a driver assist technology that requires a driver behind the wheel, such as Tesla Inc‘s TSLA full self-driving capability.

And yet, Tesla has previously been involved in crashes that killed cyclists and motorcyclists. In 2022, a Tesla driver using autopilot killed a motorcyclist in Utah. In November, a Tesla Model Y was involved in a crash that killed a motorcyclist and a high school girl in China.

However, despite being good at identifying cyclists, Waymo seemingly struggles with dogs. In June it was reported that a Waymo car collided with a dog in San Francisco, thereby killing it. Though the car identified the dog, it was unable to avoid the collision, a spokesperson said.

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