---
title: "Watch a Self-Driving Car Obey Police Hand Signals"
description: "self-driving car company Waymo recently shared a video showing one of its autonomous vehicles being waved through an intersection where the light was out."
date: "2019-02-21"
modified: "2019-02-21"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/self-driving-car-obey-police-hand-signals"
categories:
  - "Advanced Transport"
  - "Self-Driving Vehicles"
tags:
  - "advanced transport"
  - "Autonomous vehicles"
  - "waymo"
---

# Watch a Self-Driving Car Obey Police Hand Signals

![self-driving car company Waymo recently shared a video showing one of its autonomous vehicles being waved through an intersection where the light was out.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/self-driving-car-obey-police-hand-signals.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Waymo/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Palm Reading

For autonomous vehicles that rely on smooth roads and clear signals, a broken traffic light could conceivably pose a major problem.

To get around the problem of a missing green light, self-driving car company Waymo trained its vehicles' artificial intelligence to detect and respond to the arm movements of a traffic cop as they wave traffic through an intersection, [according to *CNET*](<https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/waymo-self-driving-cars-police-officer-gestures/#ftag=CAD590a51e>) — and you can [watch it on YouTube](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OopTOjnD3qY>).

## Long Time Coming

Waymo [first claimed](<https://medium.com/waymo/safely-sharing-the-road-with-cyclists-9fe6ad3b79f5>) that its autonomous vehicles could respond to hand signals from nearby cyclists back in 2016. That particular research treated cyclists, from the vehicle's perspective, as obstacles to track and avoid.

A new video published by Waymo on Wednesday is the first that shows its vehicles responding to gesture commands — especially in the absence of the traffic lights on which it would normally rely — and [obeying police orders](<https://futurism.com/police-control-self-driving-cars>). The video, which runs at three times normal speed, shows a picture-in-picture display of the car's digital perspective and a video camera as it goes through an intersection.

## Computer Vision

The video shows the car approach the intersection where a virtual red wall blocks off the road, suggesting that the computer's software responds to the absence of a green light at an intersection the same way as it might to an illuminated red light.

The cop in the video, represented by a small prism, teeters across the virtual representation of the intersection before finally waving the Waymo vehicle's vehicle through the intersection and along its way.

**READ MORE:** [Waymo self-driving cars can now respond to traffic cops' hand signals](<https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/waymo-self-driving-cars-police-officer-gestures/#ftag=CAD590a51e>) \[*CNET*\]

***More on Waymo: [Expert Slams Waymo Safety Data: “They Obviously Do Not Trust These Numbers”](<https://futurism.com/waymo-safety-data-trust-numbers>)***

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)