Yesterday, something strange happened that feels like it’s straight out of a movie. In San Francisco, an AI-driven, or self-driving, car crashed into a trolleybus. What’s even more ironic is that the car got back on the road with the help of CEOs from AI firms. Yes, you heard that right! It’s as if the brains behind some of the most advanced technology in the world resorted to using manpower, rather than their sophisticated systems, to fix a problem in their own creation. Although, these were not the CEOs of the company that made this AI-driven car.
A company called Waymo, which is backed by Google, made this self-driving car. As the vehicle sat stuck and flashing its lights, the CEOs decided to help it come out. A video of their efforts went viral, showing them pushing against the car in an attempt to help it out of the way. Brazilian CEO Freddy Vega made it even funnier by saying, “This is what the industry calls “founder mode”.”
Vega explained that the Waymo car had collided with the bus right outside the Y Combinator event. The video captures the awkward scene as the founders struggle to figure out how to get the car moving again. “The irony is that we were all coming from an AI conference about the future of automation, and here’s this AI completely stuck, blocking traffic,” he commented.
The 1-minute video, which quickly went viral with over 419,000 views, sparked a flood of comments on social media. Many viewers mocked the situation, and some summed it up nicely as well.
One user commented “What a surreal moment! AI meets human error in the most ironic way, with CEOs stepping in to assist a confused robot. The future really is here, complete with its own set of unpredictable challenges!”
However, many are mocking it such as one user commented: “first known case of robo-solidarity from humans.” Another added, “No investors were harmed during this intervention,” poking fun at the tech industry.