Should You Be Afraid of Self-Driving Vehicles? Just in the Rain
May 21, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
When I commuted from Berkeley to San Mateo, at work people would say, “I don’t know why my car can’t creep along and just avoid a wreck.” The task struck some as trivial. Straight shot. Bumper to bumper. That was in 1986. It is 2026, and where are we with the self driving thing?
Cats know that full self driving vehicles can be problematic. Thanks, Midjourney. Good enough.
“Waymo Recalls Thousands of Self-Driving Cars after Glitch Led to Creek Accident” encapsulates the problem. The article reports:
Waymo issued a voluntary recall of around 3,800 robotaxis after a software glitch allowed one of its self-driving vehicles to drive into a flooded road.
Water. Self driving cars have killed beloved cats, some people, and the crazy promises about full self driving electric cars that can drive into water. Nope.
The write up says:
The NHTSA confirmed that approximately 3,791 vehicles are affected by the recall, citing that “the software may allow the vehicle to slow and then drive into standing water on higher speed roadways.” The agency warned that when a vehicle enters a flooded road, it risks losing control, “increasing the risk of a crash or injury.”
This self driving car was a next big thing. Quantum computers were the next big thing. AI is the next big thing. Is there a common thread among these next big things? Yes, none of the next big things work reliably. What’s reliable is the marketing? The venture funding? And the dead cat in the Mission District in San Francisco.
Several observations seem to be warranted:
- Can one trust Silicon Valley companies pitching the “next big thing”? I don’t.
- Are the next big things just goals based on memories of Star Trek and Star Wars? Pretty much I think.
- Will these ideas become more reliable? Yes. Just not at the speed the hype artists promise.
Net net: Waymo is Googley. AI companies are trying to be the “winner” and mostly based on one set of methods which have the charming characteristic of hallucinating. And the quantum thing? Well, you won’t have a quantum computer laptop any time soon.
Decades of effort and self driving cars struggle with water. Yeah.
Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2026
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