These pranksters exposed a hole in Waymo’s autonomous driving system

Driverless robotaxis, such as those from Google's Waymo  (GOOG)  and General Motors' Cruise  (GM)  seem to project the idea that we are indeed living in the future, where we can sit back, relax and let technology take the wheel. 

However, a coy and clever prank by some jokesters on Instagram exposed that there may be some bugs in the software that may need to be worked out before the technology gets a wider release. 

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In a video that made the rounds on Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter) pranksters @jasonbcarr and @misterphx exposed a flaw in Waymo's autonomous driving functions in a prank that seems to be ripped right out of MTV's "Jackass." 

The trick itself consists of one of the duo standing pretty close to the edge of the sidewalk, where they stalk out their prey — 'prey' being Waymo's distinctive white Jaguar I-Pace crossover EVs. Once they see the driverless car approaching, they unbutton their shirt and stand with their hands on their hips to expose a T-shirt printed with a large stop sign on it — fooling the Waymo to come to a complete halt in separate scenarios.

The video shows the duo trying the trick four times in what seems to be different areas of the city. In three of those instances, the Waymo Jag came to a complete halt once it detected the person wearing the T-shirt, treating them (and their shirt) as any old stop sign mounted at the edge of an intersection. 

However, in the only instance that their 'trick' didn't work, the Jaguar rolled past their stop sign t-shirt without any hesitation. In their fourth attempt, the duo held the vehicle for much longer than the other two successful tries, suggesting that the vehicle was reacting to a very common roadside scenario.

"It's just holding, I guess?," @jasonbcarr said in the video, observing the Waymo stop for @misterphx's shirt on their 'final attempt.' 

"Maybe it thought he had a construction stop sign." 

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Although the 'prank' seems very funny, there are two premises that it exposes. On the first hand, the Waymo recognizing a stop sign like the one printed on the T-shirt means that its computers are more than able to recognize the sign's use in more 'non-traditional' mediums, such as crosswalks and crossing guards. 

But on the other hand, there is a small, but very mindful risk of other people trying to recreate what they just saw — for which @misterphx says “Don’t use this magic trick for evil."

TheStreet has reached out to Waymo for comment.

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