Waymo Unveils AI System That Simulates Extreme Driving Scenarios Including Elephants and Tornadoes Amid Safety Scrutiny

Waymo unveils its World Model AI system that generates extreme driving simulations including elephants on roads and tornado scenarios to train robotaxis for rare situations, as the company faces safety scrutiny after a recent California incident involving a child.

• Waymo unveils the Waymo World Model, a generative AI system built on Google's Genie 3 that creates hyper-realistic autonomous driving simulations using language prompts to modify scenes and weather conditions
• The model generates rare and extreme driving scenarios including elephants in roads, tornado chases, and snow-covered tropical cities to prepare robotaxis for unusual situations and natural disasters
• This development comes as Waymo faces safety scrutiny following a recent incident where one of its vehicles struck and injured a child in California