What makes you think it was either?
AIUI, it was the irregularity of the uncontrolled intersections combining with the “novel” (from the POV of the software) driving style of the humans. In dense areas during outages signaled intersections don’t actually degrade to 4 way stops, drivers act pretty poorly.
The normal order and flow of traffic broke down. The software determined it was now outside its safe parameters and halted.
Certainly not ideal, and the should be a very strong regulatory response (the gov should have shut them down), and meaningful financial penalties (at least for repeat incidents).
> The normal order and flow of traffic broke down. The software determined it was now outside its safe parameters and halted.
And my question is why did it halt instead of pull over?
How much to move once you decide things have gone off the rails is a hard question, but I’d assume they have put some thought into it.
Then they shouldn't be on the road. What happens if there's an earthquake? The Waymos are going to be blocking everyone else.